Doctor Exposes 330 Patients to Tuberculosis in Chicago

Chicago, ILThe parents of infants potentially exposed to tuberculosis (TB) by a doctor who carried the infection could be forgiven for wanting to know how a screening process at the three hospitals involved somehow failed.

And, for wanting to consult legal counsel in the pursuit of justice.

It was revealed Friday by ABC News that a 26-year-old resident who had previously volunteered at an HIV clinic in Africa in 2007, had come in contact with more than 300 patients while on rotation at 3 different hospitals in the Chicago area. There is widespread speculation that the resident, who was not identified, may have become infected while there—although she may have also been exposed during rotations at several other hospitals.

According to Dr. James McAuley, a pediatrics infectious diseases expert with Rush University Medical Center, the resident "was screened, as would be expected, when she started last July and was negative on the screening."

So far, none of the patients have tested positive for TB. And while young children are not necessarily more at risk than adults, the concern rises if and when they become infected.

McAuley warns that often with children the situation can progress rapidly from infection to the emergence of TB, "throughout the body, including meningitis, which can be very dangerous."

If there is any silver lining to the story, it is the fact TB is not easy to catch, according to health officials. Passed on by the process of coughing and/or sneezing, it is generally held that TB requires extended exposure to result in an infection.

While there have yet to be any cases of TB infection identified as originating from the infected resident, officials at the three Chicago hospitals have notified all parents and family members of affected patients, together with other staff members of the hospital who might have been exposed. Doctors have indicated that the most vulnerable patients would likely be treated with a round of antibiotics, as a preventative measure.

The concern centers on the size and scope of the exposure. The resident, who has since been treated and released from hospital herself, is said to have worked on at least 150 children and infants at Children's Memorial Hospital, as well as 100 patients (17 of which were newborns) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and 80 newborns at the Infant Special Care Unit at Evanston.

That's 330 patients potentially put at risk, not to mention the other staff at the 3 facilities. There was no mention of the potential exposure originating with potentially exposed staff. However, media reports have suggested that ALL patients and their caregivers haven been notified, thus one could assume the potential exposure trail has been well followed.

Critics are concerned with regard to how the routine screening of the 26-year-old resident somehow missed the infection. As it happened, the doctor only began to sense something was wrong when her symptoms worsened. Weight loss, weakness, chills and fever are demonstrative of the more serious symptoms.

The resident was treated at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and released, but has not yet returned to her duties.

"When the physician, the public health department and we all believe that it's safe for her to resume her routine activities at the hospital, of course she will be back," said Dr. Stanford Schulman, chief at the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Memorial Hospital, in comments obtained by ABC News.

However, the size and scope of the potential exposure speaks to the myriad questions as to how the TB screening could have failed in the first place and why hospitals appear to have so much trouble keeping infectious germs at bay. True, hospitals are full of sick people—so, too, are waiting rooms at clinics and doctors' offices, suggesting that you may become sick while simply making an effort not to become so.

Still, effective measures of sterility and related protocols in the operating theatre don't appear to wash through the entire hospital. Were this to be the case, perhaps fewer patients may have become exposed.

Regardless of the reason, parents of newborns and the family members of other patients exposed to TB could be forgiven for their anger over something like this happening.