The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently working on ways to control the tuberculosis outbreak in the downtown Los Angeles area and have sent out scientists to work on the issue.
"This is the largest outbreak in a decade," director of the Los Angeles Country Department of Public Health Jonathan Fielding said. "We are really putting all of our resources into this."
About 4,650 people may have been exposed to tuberculosis, as determined by health workers, and are currently being tracked down so they can be tested and treated for the disease.
Local and federal officials are concerned that the outbreak may spread to geographic locations outside of Skid Row, which is already home to a vulnerable population.
And the homeless are especially a concern for contracting TB because of poor hygiene and nutrition as well as increased rates of contact with infected people and lack of access to health care facilities.
"They go from place to place and the likelihood of passing it along is much greater," chief medical officer of the JWCH Institute Paul Gregerson said. "It makes everybody more susceptible."
An alert was issued several weeks ago by the public health department warning emergency room doctors, clinics and urgent care centers about the threat of TB.
Tuberculosis is spread when fluids from an infected person are inhaled after they sneeze, cough or laugh and is easily transmitted. And if the illness is left untreated it can be deadly.