TY - JOUR AU - Tibbetts, Kelzee AU - Ottoson, Randy AU - Tsukayama, Dean T1 - Public Health Response to Tuberculosis Outbreak among Persons Experiencing Homelessness, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 2017–2018 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2020 VL - 26 IS - 3 SP - 420 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Tuberculosis (TB) is a greater risk for populations experiencing homelessness. When a TB exposure occurs in a homeless shelter, evaluation of contacts is both urgent and challenging. In 2017, local public health workers initiated a response to a TB outbreak in homeless shelters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. In this contact investigation, we incorporated multiple techniques to identify, evaluate, and manage patients, including the concentric-circle method to characterize amount of contact, identifying the most frequent sites of sporadic medical care, using electronic medical records, and engaging with medical providers treating this population. Of 298 contacts evaluated, 41 (14%) had latent TB infection and 2 had active TB disease. Our analysis indicated a significant relationship between duration of exposure and positive TB test result (p = 0.001). We encourage local public health departments to expand beyond traditional contact tracing techniques by leveraging partnerships and existing systems to reach contacts exposed in shelters. KW - tuberculosis KW - contact tracing KW - homeless persons KW - public health response KW - homeless shelters KW - Minneapolis KW - Minnesota KW - USA KW - outbreak KW - persons experiencing homelessness KW - tuberculosis and other mycobacteria KW - respiratory infections KW - Mycobacterium tuberculosis KW - concentric-circle approach KW - bacteria DO - 10.3201/eid2603.190643 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/3/19-0643_article ER - End of Reference