Hundreds Of Babies At Risk In TB Scare

Kaiser Permanente is telling 960 mothers that they and their babies may have been exposed to a San Francisco maternity ward worker diagnosed with active tuberculosis.

Kaiser announced it had started notifying patients Tuesday about the worker formerly employed in the postpartum unit of its San Francisco Medical Center.

The part-time employee worked at Kaiser from March 10 to August 10 and no longer works for the organization.

Kaiser learned of the employee's diagnosis last week and said the medical center followed all appropriate screening procedures when hiring the employee.

"We feel that this is a low-risk exposure, but we want to be aggressive about identifying any potential contacts," Dr. Stephen Parodi, chief of infectious diseases for Kaiser Permanente in Northern California, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Dr. Parodi said the infection risk for patients was low and that the worker had a common strain of TB that responds well to antibiotics.

For more information visit the Web site of Kaiser Permanente, or call Kaiser at (800) 464-4000.