El Paso Health Dept.: 303 of 854 babies screened for tuberculosis; number testing positive remains at 5

With 303 babies screened so far, five have tested positive for tuberculosis (TB).

Of those five, four of them were given the BCG vaccine which El Paso Health Dept. officials say is the reason for the false positive.

The other positive case is being monitored and Health Dept. officials say they will be talking to the family to see if the baby got the TB at the hospital or elsewhere.

Health Dept. officials say they do expect more false positives.

The number of babies exposed to the Providence Memorial Hospital worker with active TB remains at 854.

Of that number, 684 (80 percent) have been contacted to be screened. Health Dept. officials said that efforts are being made to contact the other 20 percent but that it is normal to have about that amount not contacted right away during an investigation because they move or other circumstances.

Centers for Disease Control workers who arrived earlier this week left Thursday morning and did not recommend any changes to the Health Dept. regarding the investigation.

Robert Resendes, El Paso Health Director, said the CDC was really worried about 15 babies in particular because of other illnesses they had. Eight of those babies have already been screened for TB.

The CDC will be sending another worker to El Paso on Monday who is expected to be in El Paso for at least two weeks to make sure no exposed baby “goes missing,” as Resendes said.

Dr. Hector Ocaranza, of the El Paso Health Authority, stressed that the public should not be alarmed about the TB exposure.

Separately, Resendes said that El Paso currently has between 35 and 40 active cases of TB that aren’t related to this investigation.

There are about 100 latent TB cases at any given time, Health Dept. officials said.

El Paso’s Active TB Cases In The Last 7 Years:

2013: 49
2012: 37
2011: 37
2010: 48
2009: 57
2008: 68
2007: 40