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Pseudo-outbreak of Tuberculosis in an Acute-Care General Hospital: Epidemiology and Clinical Implications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Wendy Cronin ,
Evelyn Rodriguez ,
Sarah Valway ,
Sarah Bur ,
Nancy Hooper ,
Ronald Smithwick ,
W. Ray Butler  and
Diane Dwyer
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Abstract

A 10-fold increase in patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis-positive specimens in one hospital laboratory prompted an investigation. Clinical and epidemiological data, along with M tuberculosis DNA fingerprinting results, indicated that laboratory contamination led to nine falsepositive M tuberculosis cultures. Pseudo-infection should be considered in patients with unusual tuberculosis presentations, negative acid-fast bacilli smears, and only one positive culture with a low colony count

Type
Concise Communications
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 19 , Issue 5 , May 1998 , pp. 345 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1998

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References

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