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Written by paul
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Thursday, 08 January 2009 17:48 |
 5 San Francisco residents who either work for or frequent Castro gay bars share a common strain of tuberculosis that health officials fear could spread. Below, we try to connect the coughing dots.
4 of the 5 men are in their early 20s. 3 of them are HIV positive. (HIV is the biggest risk factor for both contracting and spreading TB.) But most intriguingly, one of them is a bartender in the Castro, and another is an employee of a SOMA retail establishment.
As reported by the Bay Area Reporter today, health officials have initiated mandatory screenings of bartenders in the Castro, but they won't name the specific establishments at the center of this potential outbreak.
"We are targeting staff of the bars because they would have the most exposure than patrons," said Kawamura. "TB takes quite a bit of exposure to catch it." He added, "We don't want to cause panic in the community."
We, however, do want to cause panic. So below we offer the health center's descriptions of the two establishments where 2 of these patients worked. We want names, people. And stats, and cock pics.
Blind Item Epicenter #1:
"A popular nightclub" in the Castro. "Nightclub" means just one of three places: The Café, Badlands, or possibly The Bar. Sources point to The Café, but diseased bartenders at all these locations come by the lube-y handful--and patrons certainly don't stay in one place more than an hour or two--so at this point it's anybody's guess.
Blind Item Epicenter #2:
"A retail commercial establishment" in SOMA with "a low-risk, indoor gymnasium-like setting with good ventilation." All signs point to Mr. S Leather, but our source there says that none of the employees have contracted TB. And he would know, he says, since "we're always up in each other's business." "Gymnasium-like" could of course also point to a sex club a gym like Gold's. "Low-risk" would seem to rule out Mack or Blow Buddies. Beyond that, we're stumped.
Please help us invade privacy by commenting below with your ideas.
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TB cases linked to Castro bars (Bay Area Reporter)
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Comments
(I totally made that up, but wouldn't it be funny if I were right?)