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Highlights from Strep A press conference
News Record Photo/Nathan Payne
Campbell County Memorial Hospital Epidemiologist Christopher Brown addressed community and public health concerns regarding three cases of Strep A that the hospital has dealt with during the past six weeks. Two of the patients had a severe form of the infection that manifested itself as necratizing fasciitis, or flesh-eating bacteria.
News Record Photo/Nathan Payne
Campbell County Memorial Hospital Epidemiologist Christopher Brown addressed community and public health concerns regarding three cases of Strep A that the hospital has dealt with during the past six weeks. Two of the patients had a severe form of the infection that manifested itself as necratizing fasciitis, or flesh-eating bacteria.
News Record Photo/Nathan Payne
Hospital trustee George Dunlap shocked people in attendance at a press conference at CCMH on Wednesday afternoon when he said that he and other high-ranking officials knew about Strep A infections when staff told the newspaper that there were no cases of the disease being treated.
News Record Photo/Nathan Payne
Campbell County Memorial Hospital spokeswoman Karen Clarke began the press conference at CCMH on Wednesday afteroon.
News Record Photo/Nathan Payne
Campbell County Public Health Officer Kirtikumar Patel listens while hospital epidemiologist Christopher Brown explains the ins and outs of his organization's treatment of three people who have been afflicted with severe Strep A infections in the past month. Brown said Wednesday in a press conference that one of those three died from the disease.
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Posted 9/26/12
Some highlights from the Campbell County Memorial Hospital’s press conference on the three confirmed cases of Streptococcus A.
- Dr. Christopher Brown, the hospital’s infectious disease specialist, didn’t give a specific time-line for when the three people were admitted to the hospital, only saying they occurred between mid-August and mid-September.
- After the first case was identified as invasive (internal) Strep A, the hospital tested 60 workers who might have had contact with the patient. All 60 tests came back negative. The tests were not conducted again after the second and third cases were confirmed because the State Health Department said it was above and beyond what was called for in that scenario. Hospital workers who had contact with the second and third patient were assured if they started exhibiting any symptoms they would be immediately seen by a doctor.
- The hospital is sending samples from the two cases of necrotizing fasciitis to Dr. James Musser at the Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston so the strain can be tracked.
- The hospital said it followed its normal protocols for making sure the bacteria didn’t spread in the hospital. “Those were standard precautions you would use with any infection. That didn’t change or alter, because if you look at the official (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommendations, they will describe standard precautions” for dealing with the bacteria, Brown said.
- All three cases were reported to the State Health Department. Because invasive Strep A infections are not highly transmittable, the State Health Department usually doesn’t follow up on the cases, said Brown. The information is used for statistical and tracking purposes.
- There have been no additional cases reported to the State Health Department.
- The patient who died from necrotizing fasciiti was treated with antibiotics and surgery, Brown said.
- When asked why the hospital first denied the cases existed, Brown said “I don’t feel like there was any attempted cover-up” and then released the information as it became available to them.