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False TB alarm closes steakhouse
By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published June 17, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - A restaurant closed Friday night after a server thought she might have tuberculosis. It was a false alarm, officials said. A test showed she was not infected. The server's boyfriend called her at work and told her he might have the contagious disease, officials said. The server began to have breathing problems, and paramedics were called about 6:30 p.m. The Sam Seltzer's Steakhouse at 3500 Tyrone Blvd. N in St. Petersburg closed voluntarily but will reopen today. Dr. Patricia Ryder, an epidemiologist who works with the Pinellas County Health Department, said it would be unlikely that a customer could contract tuberculosis from a restaurant server. It requires a longer exposure and is not passed by food, she said. TB is caused by bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The germ can attack any part of the body, but usually attacks the lungs. In 2004, the county had 32 active tuberculosis cases, Ryder said. Many others test positive to a tuberculosis skin test, but that does not mean that they have the disease, she said. "People get concerned about it a lot more than we actually see it," Ryder said.
[Last modified June 17, 2006, 07:22:20]
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