200 people 'potentially exposed' to tuberculosis at Bayhealth in Dover

About 200 people were "potentially exposed" to tuberculosis at Bayhealth in Dover from February to August, health officials said Thursday afternoon.

There is no "evidence of uncontrolled spread of the bacteria" and there is "no risk to current patients at the hospital as a result of this exposure," Division of Public Health spokeswoman Jennifer Brestel wrote in an email. 

The state wants to "strongly emphasize that the risk to the general public is minimal," she wrote.

The health department is in the process of contacting people who might have been exposed, she said. 

Bayhealth officials said in statement that the health system has and will "continue to work very closely with our partners at Delaware Public Health to identify patients who may have been exposed."

"It’s important to note the risk of exposure is low," hospital officials said. Bayhealth employees who were potentially exposed have been notified and are undergoing testing. 

So far this year, there have been 16 confirmed cases of tuberculosis in Delaware, Brestel said. 

Delaware Online/The News Journal learned of the exposure from a Smyrna woman, who received a letter on Monday, informing her that she has been "directly exposed" to a person with tuberculosis. 

The letter, which was obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal, did not describe when or how she was exposed to the bacterial disease. 

The resident told The News Journal she was a patient at Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus in May. She said the only information state officials would tell her is that she was exposed at a Bayhealth facility.

She is currently waiting on her test results, but said she isn't showing any symptoms of tuberculosis. 

Bayhealth is not "the only place where exposures from persons in the identified cluster occurred, and the majority of individuals in the original cluster were not linked" to the health system, Brestel said. 

Tuberculosis is a potentially serious bacterial disease that attacks the lungs. It is easily spread by coughing, sneezing or laughing. It can affect any bodily organ, but it is infectious when it occurs in the lungs or voice box, health officials said. 

Symptoms include a cough that lasts more than two weeks, fatigue, weakness, weight loss, fever and chills. Only people with symptoms can spread the disease. 

The disease is treatable and curable, typically by taking medication for several months.

Many people's bodies are able to fight the bacteria and stop it from growing. The bacteria will become inactive, but it can become active later. People with a latent TB infection cannot spread the bacteria to others. 

Nationally, the number of tuberculosis cases is declining in the United States. Delaware had 22 cases in 2018, 15 cases in 2017 and 16 cases in 2016, according to the state's website. 

During a "routine investigation" of a tuberculosis case in August, the state learned this individual case was related to seven others because they all had the same genotype, or genetic content, Brestel said. 

The state often sees one or two cases per year with the same genotype, she wrote. These eight cases were identified between 2018 and 2019.

Brestel said the state considers this to be a cluster and not an outbreak, since the number of tuberculosis cases are similar with other years.

When investigating this cluster further, the state learned that people at Kent Campus "may have been exposed to an individual from the cluster investigation," Brestel said. As a result, 200 people are in the process of being notified.

Brestel declined to provide any information about this individual, specifically if this person was a patient or an employee. 

If people do not receive a letter from the state regarding the exposure, they are not "considered to be at risk and should not be concerned at this point," Brestel said. 

"If DPH determined that there was increased risk to the public, officials would have initiated broader outreach efforts such as a press release to notify the public about the potential need for testing," Brestel wrote in her email.

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In May 2018, the health department revealed that more than 600 people at ManorCare Health Services Wilmington facility may have been exposed to someone who had active tuberculosis for most of 2017. 

For more information on what to do if you think you have been exposed, go to dhss.delaware.gov

Contact Meredith Newman at (302) 324-2386 or at mnewman@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @merenewman.