Healthcare-Associated Infections

(Nosocomial)(HAI)

Patients and staff in a local hospital are routinely tested using the Mantaux test to detect exposure to Tuberculosis (TB). A number of those tested came up positive, so the epidemiologists and the Hospital Infection Control Committee began an investigation. Only one patient with active TB was in the hospital and this patient was located in the negative pressure isolation room in the hospital.

You are a member of the Hospital Infection Control Committee, and are asked to investigate these findings to determine how patients and staff in the hospital may have been exposed to the TB organism. One finding is that none of the staff or patients that tested positive were ever involved in treating the TB patient or were in the vicinity of the isolation room.

Your challenge is to determine how people in the hospital may have been exposed to the TB organism.

As background for your investigation, you need to determine the following:

1. What are the signs and symptoms of a TB infection?
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2. What is the natural reservoir for Tuberculosis?
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3. What are universal precautions and are they being practiced in the hospital, especially for those involved in treating the TB patient?
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4. What are the stages of a TB infection?
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After you determine the answers to these questions, you need to determine how TB organisms from the patient in the negative pressure isolation room entered into the hospital environment and exposed patients and staff.

Should the hospital also track down visitors to test them for possible exposure to TB?
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What do you think may have happened to cause this massive TB exposure in the hospital?
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Background information:

Nosocomial infections are the fourth most common cause of mortality in the United States. (The other leading causes of mortalities are cardiovascular system diseases, cancer and strokes).

Instructions:
Visit the following CDC site to answer the questions below:
Centers for Disease Control. (2016, May 27). Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI).
Retrieved from CDC HAI

What is a Healthcare-associated Infection?
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What are the 4 types of HAI’s Listed on this CDC web page?

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*Case study based on actual events.