Transmission of multidrug-resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis among persons exposed in a medical examiner's office, New York

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bierman JA ; DiFerdinando GT Jr. ; Ostroff SM ; Seitz, Teresa A. ; Ussery XT ; Valway SE
• Description:
  An investigation was conducted at the medical examiner's office (MEO) to assess engineering controls used to prevent transmission and to determine the extent of tuberculosis (TB) infection resulting from exposure to multidrug resistant TB (MDR/TB) during the autopsies on infected inmates. Of the 881 autopsies performed by MEO personnel during 1991, 35 (4%) were performed on inmates. Eight autopsied persons either had TB confirmed by culture prior to death or at the time of death had acid fast bacillus (AFB) smear positive specimens and were diagnosed with or were being treated for TB. All eight were inmates of state correctional institutions. Of the 18 MEO employees, five (28%) had a positive TST result. Of these, two had TST conversions. A trend was observed between TST conversion and participation in the autopsies on persons with MDR/TB. The autopsy room was at positive pressure relative to the rest of the MEO and the air from the autopsy room mixed throughout the facility. The authors conclude that a systematic approach is needed to prevent transmission of TB in autopsy suites and that this should include effective environmental controls and regular tuberculin skin testing of employees. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Communicable Disease Control Communicable Diseases Disease Vectors Epidemiology Health Personnel Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Ventilation
• Keywords:
  Bacterial-disease Disease-control Disease-vectors Health-care-personnel Infectious-diseases NIOSH-Author Postmortem-examination Risk-analysis Risk-factors Ventilation-systems
• ISSN:
  0899-823X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Georgia ; New York ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 4 ; 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
• Pages in Document:
  160-165
• Volume:
  16
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00227179
• Citation:
  Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 1995 Mar; 16(3):160-165
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1995
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:89c388583c9dabf1133b0591e935e82dac182dc361857d1020bccb7508edffd87fa5c36dd67024e3d66ec41950fe1e51255e8dbfe2ae3e7a51786959a06b743f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/205807/cdc_205807_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.30 MB ]