Hospital Sends Out TB Warning Letter; In Past Year, 400 Patients at St. Francis May Have Been Exposed

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Hospital Sends Out TB Warning Letter; In Past Year, 400 Patients at St. Francis May Have Been Exposed

Charleston Gazette (www.wvgazette.com) (12/06/00) P. 1C
Leonard, Martha

Approximately 400 patients who were treated at a Charleston, West Virginia, hospital over the past year are being warned that they may have been exposed to tuberculosis (TB). "There has been an exposure in our acute-care setting, and as a precaution we sent letters to patients asking them to come in for a TB test," explained St. Francis Hospital's chief nursing officer, Jeanne Reeves. Due to confidentiality concerns, Reeves would not say whether it was a patient or hospital employee who was infected, nor would she reveal what part of the hospital was involved. Reeves said the letters were sent, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, to individuals in the "primary circle of exposure." According to the CDC, the primary circle includes individuals at highest risk of developing TB because of the length of time they were exposed to the TB bacterium.
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