Ten latent TB cases linked to infected doctor

By Associated Press

BOSTON - One patient and nine health care workers infected with tuberculosis have been linked to a surgical resident who continued to work while she had an active form of the disease, health care officials say.

Neither the patient at Boston Medical Center nor the nine workers at the hospital with positive skin tests have shown symptoms of the bacterial illness, which can lay dormant for years, said Dr. Anita Barry of the Boston Public Health Commission.

"I would consider it still reassuringly low when you consider the number of people potentially exposed," said Dr. Alfred DeMaria, director of communicable disease control at the state Public Health Department.

All 10 have been advised to take a nine-month course of medication designed to eliminate their infections and to prevent them from becoming infectious, Barry said on Thursday.

Symptoms include cough, high fever, chills and fatigue, according to public health officials. Tuberculosis only can be spread by people who have symptoms.

More than 3,900 patients and staff have been tested at the Boston Medical Center and the Veterans Administration hospitals in West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain since the surgical resident was diagnosed with an active form of tuberculosis last month.

The junior doctor also treated patients at Brockton Hospital and Cape Cod Hospital, but no infections there have been traced to the doctor, who has not been publicly identified due to federal privacy laws.

Federal records indicate that the doctor may have been infected by TB last summer, but missed a scheduled X-ray last July and was contagious for six months while she continued treating patients until June 2.

The resident apparently had contact with nearly 4,300 patients and workers at the five hospitals between last December and early June.

The doctor has not returned to practice at Boston Medical Center, spokeswoman Ellen Berlin said, but would not provide further details of her status.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the hospitals where the doctor worked to determine if any workplace safety laws were violated, an agency spokesman said.

Community activist groups have criticized the hospitals for allowing the doctor to work even after she missed her July 2004 X-ray, saying the facilities demonstrated disregard for patient and worker safety.

But a nurses union was satisfied with the response.

"It seemed like it was handled pretty much delicately," said David Schildmeier, Massachusetts Nurses Association spokesman. "I didn't get any complaints about how it was being handled."