Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., has begun patient screenings after a nurse tested positive for tuberculosis. Image courtesy the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Officials at a San Jose, Calif., hospital said more than 1,000 people, including 350 infants, may have been exposed to tuberculosis after a nurse was diagnosed with the disease.
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center officials identified 350 infants, 308 employees and 368 patients who may have been exposed after an active case of tuberculosis was diagnosed in a nurse employed "in the area of the newborn nursery," a hospital statement said. Dr. Stephen Harris, the hospital's chairman of pediatrics, said in a teleconference Friday that "while the risk of infection is low, the consequences of a tuberculosis infection in infants can be severe."
Of the nurse with tuberculosis, Harris added, "It is still very unlikely that anybody will get infected from their contact with this employee," noting the unidentified nurse tested negative in September during an annual check for tuberculosis, but her physician found an abnormality in her lung in November in a non-work-related consultation. She later tested positive for tuberculosis.
The airborne disease typically attacks the lungs, but can also affect kidneys, the brain and the spine, and can be fatal. Screenings of those possibly affected have begun, hospital spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said, with no positive indications of the infection thus far.
"In infants that young, it doesn't stay in the lungs like it does with older children or adults. There is the potential for it to go into their bloodstream and then infect other organs," Alexiou said.
All 350 infants born in the hospital between August and November will receive an antibiotic treatment for six to nine months, whether or not they test positive.
A Facebook post Sunday by Paul Lorenz, CEO of the hospital, called the exposure "an unusual and unfortunate circumstance."
Tuberculosis is rare in the United States, and is characterized by a long-lasting cough, chest pain and the coughing up of blood.
