Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
Chicago Hospital Worker May have Exposed Hundreds to TB
Share:
by Mary Richard | April 10, 2009 at 11:47 pm
389 views | 36 Recommendations | 6 comments
A resident doctor-in-training working at three Chicago hospitals has been diagnosed with tuberculosis, potentially exposing hundreds of patients and staff.
Officials are contacting all who might have been exposed at Children's Memorial Hospital, in an intensive care unit for newborns at Evanston Hospital and in a unit for newborns in Northwestern Memorial Prentice Women's Hospital.
Photos
The 26-year-old female pediatric resident was diagnosed Tuesday with TB at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after experiencing symptoms consistent with the infectious disease, hospitals and the Chicago Department of Public Health said. Symptoms of "active" TB include coughing, night sweats, fever, chills and weight loss.
As of Friday evening, no patients or workers related to this case had been diagnosed with TB. The three hospitals -- Northwestern, Children's Memorial and Evanston -- said they believe the risk to patients is "minimal" from the resident, whose identity was not released.
"She did have some time when she was contagious at those three institutions," Dr. Susan Gerber, chief medical officer of the Public Health Department, said in an interview with the Tribune. "We are researching the different days and different places that she has been during the time that she would have been contagious."
See video at Chicago Tribune.
Advertisement
NowPublic on Facebook
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
Mary Richard
Toronto, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 07:28 on April 11th, 2009
Thank you. I did not know about it taking so much exposure - many hours of prolonged contact - to contract TB. That is reassuring.
Mary
at 10:33 on April 11th, 2009
Most hospitals routinely test their interns, residents, and other health care providers in the northeast for TB and other communicable diseases, but maybe it's not a comprehensive requirement for hospitals across the US.
at 10:41 on April 11th, 2009
Scary stuff.
at 11:58 on April 11th, 2009
The resident in question was absolutely tested for TB before residency and must have tested negative or she wouldn't have been able to start. The tests aren't even close to 100% and active TB can be difficult to diagnose. Plus, anyone who has worked in a children's hospital knows that everyone gets the sniffles and a cough occasionally! I can't imagine it was anything other than an honest mistake, and I'm sure the resident feels horrible about the prospect of having infected any of her patients.
at 18:44 on April 12th, 2009
I read that the resident was screened as recently as last July and that she "was negative." That may not mean her skin test was negative, though. It might refer to her chest x-ray. If there's any suspicion that she was exposed to the disease during her time in Botswana, which was in late 2007, I'm pretty sure (have some public health background in this area) her skin test would have come up positive by July 2008.
That still wouldn't have meant that she had active tuberculosis or was infectious. If you come up with a positive skin test (latent or inactive TB), a negative chest x-ray can clear you to work in a health care or school setting. The tricky thing is that if, for any reason, your immune system is suppressed, you get pregnant, or you experience major stress or sleep privation, the dormant infection can be activated. That could be what happened here.
If even her skin test was negative last July and she contracted TB and became actively ill in just a few months, it's sheer bad luck and no one's fault. But, if she had a positive skin test, with a negative chest x-ray - the program and/or hospitals probably failed her in not urging her to undergo treatment and "knock out" the TB up front. They could have reserved a slot for her to return to the program if she had to take a hiatus to do this.
In any case, my sympathies are with her, and I hope she makes a swift recovery.