Five babies test positive for tuberculosis infection

The Department of Public Health and representatives from Providence Memorial Hospital confirmed Saturday at a joint news conference five babies have tested positive for Tuberculosis infection.

DPH said it’s important to point out they are not considered to have active TB disease.

Robert Resendes, the Director of the El Paso Health Department, said this is a situation they have under control.

“This is nothing new, it just may be a little larger than we are used to dealing with,” Resendes said. “But it is something we know how to deal with.”

These results are based on skin testing and all X-rays were negative. Four of these babies received a BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccine that may be generating false positives. But all babies will be offered treatment.

Resendes also said the Department is looking at only a half-percent infection rate at this point in time.

DPH said in a press release that based on new state and federal recommendations, the list of children considered possibly exposed has been increased by 96. The total number of parents received letters or phone calls to come in for a screening will be 858 on Monday, and that number can fluctuate as the investigation continues, as evidence dictates expansion.

As ABC-7 first reported, the original list of 706 babies exposed to the employee with active TB has grown to 751.

The number of babies being screened has been increased by 96 babies, which includes the babies that were transitioned, or born before the healthcare worker’s shift, but were transitioned out of the nursery during the worker’s shift.

So far, more than 200 TB screenings have been completed including skin tests and x-rays, and there are currently no confirmed cases of TB disease.

Health authorities said they are using the medicine Isoniazid, known as INH, to help with the treatment. Authorities said this medicine has fewer side effects for younger children.

“We know that in older people they can see some side effects,” a health authority spokesperson said. “But the younger they are, the less side effects we can see on this specific medication.”

If you believe your baby may have been exposed to the hospital employee with active Tuberculosis, call 211 or 915-771-1228 to make an appointment for a screening. Wait times for walk-ins are expected to be very long.

POSTED: 08:21 AM MDT Sep 24, 2014
Providence Memorial Hospital CEO Eric Evans said on Tuesday that the first time the hospital became aware of an employee having Tuberculosis symptoms was in July.

Evans admitted they should have done more with that information at that time.

Full El Paso Health Dept. Sept. 23 news conference…
“We knew of some symptoms in July,” Evans said. “We could and should have done more at that point. “

The nursery employee tested positive for TB in August and was placed on leave. Health officials don’t know when she became an active, infectious TB patient or how she contracted the disease. They are testing patients she handled from September 2014 to August of 2014.

“I first of all want to apologize to the families that are affected by this and let you know as CEO of Providence Memorial Hospital, I and my colleagues take absolutely ownership of our role in this,” Evans said. “I represent today, over 3,000 dedicated co-workers who get up every day dedicated to helping others in their most vulnerable moments. They’re a group of people that I’m very proud of and they’re all struggling with this happening in our facility.”

Evans said this is something we are not putting back on the City’s Health Dept. and that Providence is staffing and screening for TB.

“This is something we are going to work through,” Evans said.

Providence Memorial Hospital is at risk of losing funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) after the agency revealed several violations that, according to a CMS deputy regional administrator, posed “an immediate jeopardy to patient safety.”

Evans said the hospital has submitted an action plan to the CMS, and will release it to the public on Wednesday.

The Health Dept. has requested assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and they will arrive on Monday.

State public health partners from Austin should be arriving Tuesday, too.

Number of babies to be tested grows

As ABC-7 first reported on Monday night, the original list of 706 babies exposed to the employee with active TB has grown to 751.

Also, 43 employees had originally been identified as being exposed. Now the number is 55, with 53 of them already tested and cleared. Two of those employees’ test results came back positive for latent TB and are not contagious.

El Paso Health Dept. officials said one of the most frequently asked questions from parents has been if a baby has TB if they can pass it along to family members, especially if they share a room with a sibling or parent.

Health Dept. officials said that being infected does not mean you’re infectious.

Health Dept. officials addressed the rumors that 10 babies have already tested positive for TB and said that is false because none of the results are available until Wednesday because it takes up to 72 hours to get the results.

Evans cleared up another rumor, saying that the infected employee was not a nurse but a patient care tech. He said that patient care techs assist nurses.

Evans declined to say any more about the employee’s infection and prior TB status, citing privacy laws.

How many patients have been seen? How many scheduled?

Robert Resendez, El Paso Public Health Director, said the Health Dept. started booking patients for testing Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

He also said they had fielded 1,000 phone calls about TB as of Tuesday afternoon.

Forty patients were scheduled to be tested Monday and 38 kept their appointments.

They upped the testing schedule to 80 today and saw 72 and will try to increase that to 100 to 120 patients Wednesday.

Resendez said they expect to see all patients in three weeks instead of the originally projected six weeks.

“We should be able to see everyone within the first three weeks,” Resendes said. “TB is not a disease where if you wait a week or two weeks things are going to go really bad. Tb’s a really slow growing disease. If you’re first on the list or last on the list, it’s not going to make that much of difference.”

Of more than 700 patients identified as needing to be tested, 502 have already been scheduled.

There’s parents concerned their baby was in that nursery when the tech was there, which is anywhere between September of last year and August of this year, but haven’t received a letter saying their babies needs to be tested.

Evans said it’s not just the fact the employee was there “but the little detail on that posting is the shift they worked and there are people that could have the same date of delivery, but not have needed to be on this list,” Evans said. “So this is why it’s so important that if you haven’t been contacted, you’re not on that list.”