Thursday, August 28, 2008

Almost 1000 Newborns Exposed To Tuberculosis

SAN FRANCISCO — Kaiser Permanente is telling 960 mothers that they and their babies may have been exposed to a San Francisco maternity ward worker diagnosed with active tuberculosis.

Kaiser announced it had started notifying patients Tuesday about the worker formerly employed in the postpartum unit of its San Francisco Medical Center.

The part-time employee worked at Kaiser from March 10 to August 10 and no longer works for the organization.

Kaiser learned of the employee's diagnosis last week and said the medical center followed all appropriate screening procedures when hiring the employee.

Kaiser's infectious disease chief in Northern California said the infection risk for patients was low and that the worker had a common strain of TB that responds well to antibiotics.

Maybe they should screen a little better. What if it had been a tougher strain of tuberculosis? If I was one of the parents I would be pissed. And what about all of the people who came to visit the new parents at the hospital? How are they to be warned?

Also of Interest:
Pregorexia
How Much Weight To Gain While Pregnant

source

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