Severe TB case triggers hunt for possible victims
A woman with a severe form of tuberculosis was being treated at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland Tuesday while health officials were searching for people she may have infected.
The woman was admitted to NIH's hospital in Bethesda on Friday with an "extensively drug-resistant" form of the disease, the NIH said in a statement. She was in stable condition Tuesday.
"The patient is staying in an isolation room in the NIH Clinical Center specifically designed for handling patients with respiratory infections," NIH said.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, is providing treatment. NIAID has treated other so-called XDR-TB patients in the past, NIH said .
"NIH is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of all concerned, and the situation is of minimal risk to other Clinical Center patients, NIH staff, and the public," the statement said.
Bruce Hirsch, a physician and infectious diseases specialist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y, told Paste BN that monitoring potentially exposed patients is "essential" to keeping Americans safe.
"The treatment of this resistant strain of tuberculosis is challenging and prolonged," he warned.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told nbcwashington.com that health officials in Illinois are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find people with whom the woman may have had prolonged direct contact.
The woman flew from India to Chicago in April, The New York Times reported. After arriving in Chicago, the woman traveled to Missouri and Tennessee before returning to Chicago, where she sought treatment at a hospital about seven weeks after she arrived in the U.S., the Times said.
The hospital diagnosed drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, and the woman was transported Friday by special air and ground ambulances to NIH.
"If she was coughing then people on the plane are certainly at risk for catching this," Debra Spicehandler, co-chief of infectious disease at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y., told Paste BN. "Not a high risk but there's always a risk of transmission."
TB is normally is not easily spread but can be hard to treat. It is a potentially serious infectious disease that mainly affects the lungs. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis move between people through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes.
Once rare in developed countries, TB infections began increasing in 1985 with the emergence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV weakens the immune system, making it susceptible to TB germs. In the United States, tuberculosis began to decrease again in 1993. Globally however, more than 1 million die from TB each year.