Doctor sparks TB scare at RLI
AROUND 450 staff and patients at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary have been checked for tuberculosis after a doctor contracted the disease.
GPs sent letters to patients after the male doctor was diagnosed and patients are undergoing x-rays. The process is still ongoing and bosses expect 150 people will be examined.
Around 300 members of staff have also been checked for signs of TB.
The doctor received treatment at the RLI but a spokeswoman for the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust said it could not disclose how he contracted the disease or how he is now for reasons of 'patient confidentiality'.
But she said that the diagnosis, which was made in May, was not linked to the death of a male patient who was admitted to the RLI with undiagnosed TB earlier this year.
She added that the hospital had followed national guidelines by working with the Health Protection Agency and other key partners to identify potential risks to patients and staff.
Medical director Peter Dyer said: "We understand that it is worrying for people to hear that they may have been in contact with someone with TB.
"We responded quickly and thoroughly, working with GPs to identify those patients who may be at risk and who were considered to have a weakened immune system.
"We have seen the majority of these patients and anticipate that we will see 150 patients in total - each patient is referred for a chest x-ray. To date, there have been no positive cases of TB amongst these patients.
"We would like to re-assure anyone concerned that TB doesn't usually spread easily from person-to-person. It is very unlikely that any patients will have contracted the disease whilst in our hospital."
Mr Dyer added that to be at risk a patient would have needed to have been in close and prolonged contact with someone who had active lung TB.
"We established that staff had the closest contact with the doctor and all our staff who have been in eight hours cumulative close contact (arms length) with the doctor concerned were asked to come for screening for the disease as a precautionary measure," he said.
"Staff screening is virtually complete and we can also confirm that there are no reported cases."
The trust says there are typically between two and five cases of TB at the RLI each year.
Its doctor's diagnosis was one of five confirmed cases of TB within the NHS North Lancashire area so far this year.
Last year saw eight confirmed cases.
Tuberculosis, or TB, is a disease caused by a germ called mycobacterium tuberculosis. It usually affects the lungs, but can affect other parts of the body, such as the lymph nodes (glands), the bones and the brain.
The TB germ is usually spread when a person who has TB of the lungs coughs or sneezes into the air.
Symptoms include fever and night sweats, a persistent cough, weight loss and loss of appetite, blood in the sputum.
Screening for TB involves a 'Mantoux' skin test and in some cases a chest x-ray and/or a blood test. Treatment includes a six-month course of antibiotics.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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