An employee of Johns Hopkins Hospital apparently contracted tuberculosis from a patient being treated there, hospital officials said Thursday.
The strain of tuberculosis contracted by the nonmedical employee is “very treatable,” and the employee remains at work, the hospital said in a statement.
“The employee is expected to make a full recovery and is not now and was never considered highly contagious or a threat to the health of co-workers or other staff and patients at Johns Hopkins,” the statement said.
While the hospital is still investigating the source of the infection, officials said the most likely source was a patient being treated for an unrelated condition between August and December of last year. That patient was isolated after being diagnosed with TB in December and is receiving drug treatment, hospital spokesman David March said.
Hopkins notified the Baltimore City and Baltimore County health departments after the patient tested positive. The employee tested positive during routine annual screening of all Hopkins staff in mid-March.
The strain the employee caught was virtually identical to that of the patient, according to the Health Department. Hopkins officials have identified fewer than two dozen patients, as well as staff and visitors at risk of exposure and is offering TB testing.
No one else has tested positive so far, March said.
“Tuberculosis experts at Hopkins say the risk of possible transmission from patient to staff, staff to staff, or patient to patient, remains very low,” the statement said.
