Evaluation of exposure to tuberculosis among employees at a medical center

Details

• Personal Author:
  De Perio, Marie A. ; Niemeier, R. Todd
• Description:
  Tuberculosis (TB), a disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, (M. tuberculosis), is spread from person to person through the air. TB usually infects the lungs, but it can also infect other body parts such as the brain, kidneys, or spine. People who are infected by the bacteria but who do not exhibit symptoms have latent TB infection. It is estimated that onethird of the world's population has latent TB infection, and approximately 5%-10% of those infected will develop TB disease within their lifetimes.In July 2011, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) received a health hazard evaluation request from management representatives at a medical center in Arizona concerning exposure of employees to M. tuberculosis. They asked for our assistance in evaluating the infection control and occupational health practices related to TB. At the time of our visit, the medical center included an inpatient hospital with 73 beds and adjacent outpatient facility, and the center had approximately 1,000 employees. One nurse, the infection control practitioner, was responsible for all infection control and occupational health activities at the medical center. The medical center's TB policy required annual tuberculin skin testing (TST) of all employees with face-to-face patient contact, which included the majority of employees. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Bacterial Infections Communicable Disease Control Communicable Diseases Environmental Monitoring Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Hospitals Lung Diseases Occupational Health Particulate Matter Personal Protective Equipment Race Factors Respiratory Tract Diseases Safety Staff Development Ventilation

  More +
• Keywords:
  Air-contamination Airborne-particles Author Keywords: Tuberculosi Bacteria Bacterial-disease Bacterial-infections Control-systems Controlled-environment Disease-control Disease-prevention Disease-transmission Employee-health Exposure-assessment Health-care-facilities Health-care-personnel HETA 2011-0137-3159 Hospital Infection-control Infectious-diseases Lung-disease Lung-disorders M. Tuberculosis Medical-facilities Medical-personnel Medical-screening Medical Center Nursing Personal-protective-equipment Pulmonary-system-disorders Racial-factors Respiratory-system-disorders Training Work-operations Work-practices

  More +
• ISSN:
  1545-9624
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  11
• Issue:
  6
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20043779
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Hyg 2014 Jun; 11(6):D63-D68
• Contact Point Address:
  Marie A. de Perio, MD, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4676 Columbia Parkway, R-10, Cincinnati, OH 45226
• Email:
  mdeperio@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• NORA Priority Area:
  Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a0984773f96c3ab5270aebfb6726d3e7a08513dbc5442e3cdb6f7afeabbef9e09578ceb5071f0e4e01ebaa5fccd1847cc8db8612c7462667063aca995c03578a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/195591/cdc_195591_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 101.70 KB ]