Health Dept Issue

I am the DIS RN for our local health department, and I investigate all communicable diseases for 3 counties. We recently had a TB case (active) and had to do a HUGE investigation. Before and during the investigation, family members and friends of the one with possible TB were told by the patient about the possibility of having TB, and they all flocked to different health departments demanding to be tested. It created a horrible mess, as there is protocol when conducting a TB investigation, and who needs to be tested is determined by the contact they've had with the patient, the length of time they were exposed, the size of the house of building where the exposure took place, etc. We always tell everyone who is tested that they need to not breathe (no pun intended!) a word of it to anyone and let us do our investigating. It can create havoc with local media, as well, if word gets out. I can understand why they kept it under wraps until they met with you. We've done the same thing.

Edited to add: TB doesn't spread immediately once you've been in contact. It can take 2 months or longer to convert from latent to active, or it may never convert to active. And even if you've had close contact repeatedly, you may never have a +QFT, and you may never contract TB. One other thing, approximately 1/3 of the population has latent TB, and will test positive with a QFT, from someone with active TB that they might have had contact with as a child but never had a conversion to active TB.

I am the DIS RN for our local health department, and I investigate all communicable diseases for 3 counties. We recently had a TB case (active) and had to do a HUGE investigation. Before and during the investigation, family members and friends of the one with possible TB were told by the patient about the possibility of having TB, and they all flocked to different health departments demanding to be tested. It created a horrible mess, as there is protocol when conducting a TB investigation, and who needs to be tested is determined by the contact they've had with the patient, the length of time they were exposed, the size of the house of building where the exposure took place, etc. We always tell everyone who is tested that they need to not breathe (no pun intended!) a word of it to anyone and let us do our investigating. It can create havoc with local media, as well, if word gets out. I can understand why they kept it under wraps until they met with you. We've done the same thing.

Edited to add: TB doesn't spread immediately once you've been in contact. It can take 2 months or longer to convert from latent to active, or it may never convert to active. And even if you've had close contact repeatedly, you may never have a +QFT, and you may never contract TB. One other thing, approximately 1/3 of the population has latent TB, and will test positive with a QFT, from someone with active TB that they might have had contact with as a child but never had a conversion to active TB.

Thanks for this insight! I didn't realize latent TB was so prevalent