Dept. of Public Health: Adult Day Care exposed to Tuberculosis

The Department of Public Health has tested more than 100 people at an adult day care in the Lower Valley after they were exposed to tuberculosis.

The daycare is located on the 8000 Block of San Juan.

Officials say they discovered a client at the Desert Heaven Adult Day Care center has active tuberculosis. Now they’re looking for dozens more who they believe were exposed as well.

The Department has tested 130 clients and staff, they’re still waiting for results. They’re looking for 50 others who were clients between last June and December.

“I got here to the dining hall, I asked and they told me it was an investigation. The exposure isn’t confirmed,” Maria Cordero said.

Cordero’s 85-year old mother has been a client at Desert Heaven for two years. The recent exposure at the adult day care has her family questioning the state of the facility.

“It worries me a lot because these are elderly people, but i was a bit calm because a problem like that, the facility would have closed. They would have told us,” Cordero said.

The Department of Public Health tested Cordero’s mother along with 129 other clients and staff at the facility, after they discovered in December, a client had active TB. They say the client had the disease for several months before showing symptoms, possibly exposing others since June of last year.

“Tuberculosis shares symptoms with many other diseases so it’s not easy to come to the conclusion that it’s just active TB,” Dr. OCaranza with the Department of Public Health said.

Workers and officials at Desert Heaven would not speak with us regarding the investigation, but some clients Abc-7 spoke with say they like it here and they’ll keep coming.

“I keep coming here because it’s like my second home, because there’s a lot of people that don’t have something like this to come to,” Client Joey Saenz said.

The day care hosts activities for clients like bingo and physical exercises and even takes clients on small errand trips.

“I think that they’re taking care of it, we got tested and everything is going to be taken care of one day at a time,” Saenz said.

But others like Cordero, aren’t so sure.

“My sisters don’t want to bring her here anymore. But my mom likes it so much. It’s a distraction for her. Especially at their age, they love to be in this environment, so at this time, I don’t know yet,” Cordero said.

Approximately 130 attendees and staff have been tested for TB and confirmatory results are still pending in order to determine if any of them have an active/infectious form of the disease.

“We are currently performing a routine and systematic TB contact investigation in coordination with regional and state officials in order to determine if anyone has developed active TB as a result of this exposure,” Robert Resendes, Public Health Director, said.

The Department of Public Health is now attempting to find 50 or more people who need to be tested but who no longer attend the facility. Officials say letters and home visits will begin next week. The department has also set up a hotline for those whose contact information has changed.

Officials are urging anyone who attended the facility between June 1st and December 31st of last year, who have not yet been tested, to call (915) 212-6609 Monday through Thursday from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to set up an appointment to receive free testing.

From The Department of Public Health: Tuberculosis can be spread when a person with active TB disease coughs or sneezes, releasing secretion droplets with the germs into the air. However, TB is not highly contagious and may require close contact over an extended period of time in order to be spread. Once in the body the bacteria usually lay dormant for months or years before they begin to grow and cause a case of active TB. That’s why they say it is so important to identify people who may have been exposed, screen them, and provide treatment that can prevent them from ever developing active TB disease. Only those with active Pulmonary TB disease can spread TB bacteria to others. Additional information about TB can be found at www.EPHealth.com.

We’ll have a full report on the exposure on Abc-7.