June 5, 2007
Nurses Honored for Handling of TB Case
As the story of a serious case of drug-resistant tuberculosis monopolized international headlines last week, Montana health officials presented an award to Lake County public health nurses for their exemplary handling of an unusual TB case over the past year.
Linda Davis and Brigid O’Connor were honored May 31 during a meeting with Lake County commissioners.
The pair, working with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS), managed a very complicated TB case over the course of several months this year and last. They not only managed treatment and monitored the disease, but they successfully isolated the patient to prevent others from exposure. They also coordinated transfer of the patient to and from the National Jewish Medical Center in Denver – the same hospital where an Atlanta man is being treated for an extremely drug-resistant strain of TB.
Public health officials have not released the name of the Montana patient due to confidentiality laws and respect for individual privacy.
“The TB case now making international news has highlighted the inherent difficulties of controlling the spread of communicable diseases,” said Dr. Steven Helgerson, state medical officer with DPHHS. “But we’re pleased to be able to say that state and local health officials in Montana were prepared for and responded to the recent challenge very competently. The nurses in Lake County deserve recognition for their exemplary work.”
Health professionals have made tremendous strides to reduce illness and death from TB in Montana and the nation. In 1960, the number of TB cases reported in Montana was 220, while last year only 13 were reported, according to Denise Ingman, TB program officer at DPHHS.
“It’s important to remember that, while we’ve succeeded in controlling many communicable diseases, like TB, they have not been eliminated,” Dr. Helgerson said. “We must continue to maintain strong disease detection, prevention, and control efforts to keep new and re-emerging communicable diseases at the lowest levels possible.”
Joan Miles, director of DPHHS, noted that recent funding and initiatives aimed at improving public health emergency preparedness helped ready local and state officials to handle the 2006 TB case.
“This was a success story,” she said. “And I think we can attribute it at least in part to the fact that state and local officials had developed the relationships and determined the public health authorities they needed to respond not only appropriately, but superbly.”
For more information about TB, visit the CDC website at http://www.cdc.gov/tb/xdrtb/.
