A Contract Driver of a Certain Hospital Gets Infected with TB and Spreads the Disease to His Family

Lin,Du-Ling Shr

2006 Vol.22 NO.4

Correspondence Author：

Abstract：

On March 1, 2006, Taiwan CDC Branch #3, which is located in Taichung City, received notification from Nantou County Health Bureau about the discovery of a family cluster of tuberculosis (TB). The family’s surname is Wu and the index case of the outbreak is a male adult Mr. Wu. He was detected, diagnosed, confirmed, and officially notified only a few days earlier, on February 25, as a sufferer of open pulmonary TB. Two days later, on February 27, his toddler son was also notified as having contracted a condition of pulmonary TB along with TB of bones and joints. Since this man works as a contract driver for the hemodialysis unit of a local hospital, providing pick–up services to quite a few immunity-weakened or immunocompromised renal disease patients going to the hospital for dialysis therapy, plus his own young boy was also diagnosed as an affirmative case of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the health authority in charge considered this cluster a risk of potentially massive spreading, and it is necessary to launch a full-scale investigation into Mr. Wu’s work contacts to expose possible but still hidden infected cases among them.