2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

Home Events & Meetings Annual Meeting Schedule & Program

Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

332265
Public health response to large-scale Tuberculosis exposure of newborns in El Paso, TX


Monday, November 2, 2015

Robert Resendes, MBA, MT (ASCP), CLS (RI), Department of Public Health, City of El Paso Department of Public Health, El Paso, TX
In 2014, the El Paso Department of Public Health faced one of the largest infant Tuberculosis exposures on record.  This large-scale TB exposure put at risk 859 babies born between September 2013 and August 2014 in a local hospital where a health care worker had active TB.  The City of El Paso Department of Public Health faced major operational challenges in order to properly evaluate, test, and treat babies exposed to TB in a local, multi-state, and international setting.  Various emergency plans were implemented including:  Incident Command (IC), Crisis and Emergency Response Team (CERT), Crisis and Emergency Risk Communications (CERC), and Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP).  Overall, El Paso local health department learned valuable lessons in interagency collaboration and communication within the community employing partnerships with local media, dedicated webpages, open hotlines, and mass mailing distributions.  The TB hospital event response started September 2014 and continued 6 months of testing, treatment, and follow-up.  We have come to a successful outcome of no active TB found in any of the babies.

Learning Areas:

Administration, management, leadership
Epidemiology
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Provision of health care to the public

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the operational challenges faced in light of a TB exposure involving 859 babies born in a hospital where a health care worker tested positive for active TB. Describe inter-agency collaboration necessary to properly evaluate, test, and treat babies exposed to TB in a multiple state, international, setting. Assess the implementation of various emergency plans that were implemented in order to adjust and continue operations, including: Incident Command (IC), Crisis and Emergency Response Team (CERT), Crisis and Emergency Risk Communications (CERC), and Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP). Evaluate the effectiveness of various forms of communication during the El Paso TB Hospital Event including: dedicated webpages, call center/appointment line, media briefings, and utilization of a liaison officer.

Keyword(s): Tuberculosis, Local Public Health Agencies

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Robert Resendes is the director of the City of El Paso's Department of Public Health since 2013. Mr Resendes functioned as the incident commander for one of the largest TB exposure on record.He is fully qualified to present on this event.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 3203.0: Poster Session - Infectious Disease Epidemiology