Matthew 24:10,11 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
A California hospital is warning that about 350 infants might have been exposed to tuberculosis.
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose issued a news release Friday saying that a female employee who worked near the newborn nursery had been diagnosed with the potentially deadly disease.
The hospital said in the news release that it is contacting mothers who visited its Mother & Infant Care Center between mid-August and mid-November of this year. The hospital will screen them and their infants for tuberculosis and give them antibiotic medicine that kills the disease.
The hospital said its employee underwent an annual tuberculosis test in September and did not show any signs of the disease — including any symptoms. But when the employee later saw her doctor for an unrelated issue, the physician discovered the employee had in fact been infected.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tuberculosis is transmitted when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. Nearby people can breathe in the bacteria. If the bacteria multiplies enough, they can develop symptoms like a bloody cough and chest pain.
The CDC said tuberculosis was once the leading cause of death in the United States, but there were fewer than 10,000 reported cases of the disease in 2013. Tuberculosis usually affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body including the brain, kidneys and spine.
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center said it placed the infected employee on leave to cut down the risk of exposing its patients, visitors and staff.
“While the risk of infection is low, the consequences of a tuberculosis infection in infants can be severe,” the hospital’s pediatrics chair, Dr. Stephen Harris, said in a statement. “That’s why we decided to do widespread testing and start preventative treatments for these infants as soon as possible.”
Maybe I need to clarify what a sign test is, it is a skin test where you end up with a bump and redness around it after dead TB is injected under the skin.
The antibiotic that kills TB is really hard on the nervous system. The abbreviation of the medication is INH. You have to have the medication for 9months with regular monthly visits to make sure the medication is not causing damage to other organs. The reason I know this is as a nurse I was exposed to a Father of a child in home health care that ended up TB and exposed me and another nurse, as well as his ex-wife and children. The medication really was hard on my health and the health of the other nurse as well. As a nurse you have to be on the medication for a couple of weeks before you can go back to taking care of patients. However, there is no guarantee that taking the medication for 9 months will keep you from having what the CDC refers to as “BREAK THROUGH”. That means that some people even though they take the medication all the way through, may not months or years later end up having the TB exposure regenerate and cause them to end up with TB. They tell you signs and symptoms to watch for and if you get those you must go in for an X-ray to make sure you haven’t ended up with TB. You can’t have a sign test for TB after being exposed and going through the meds because you’ll always have a sign reaction. If you need to get a job you’ll have to have an X-ray proving you don’t have TB and bring those results with you to your employer. The medication is pretty tough on the stomach.