TB case eyed at post office in Chantilly

Fairfax County health officials are investigating why more than 30 employees at a Chantilly post office have tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis.

The investigation began in January after officials learned one employee was found to have an active tuberculosis case.

The Fairfax County Department of Health has made no public notification about the investigation but discussed the case in response to questions from The Washington Times yesterday.

Officials have declined to identify the employee’s position, citing patient-privacy rules, but they said customers were not at risk. They also said the employee has returned to work after being treated and is not at risk to infect others.

A union leader representing Northern Virginia postal workers was upset about the union not being told about the situation.

“I’m outraged,” said Douglas Sapp of the Northern Virginia area local of the American Postal Workers Union.

Health department spokesman Michael Andrews said the agency notified every employee on the day and night shifts at the post office and left messages with at least one union official.

He also said the agency decided against notifying the general public about the investigation at the post office, at 4410 Brookfield Corporate Drive.

“Because of the circumstances surrounding the case, the determination was made that there was an insufficient risk to justify undue alarm to the general public,” Mr. Andrews said. “The exposure risk was minimal at best to the customers going in and out of the post office.”

Dr. Donald Thea, an infectious-disease specialist at Boston University’s School of Public Health, said the decision on whether to notify the public may have hinged in part on where the employee who initially carried TB worked and where other employees who tested positive worked.

“If there wasn’t good evidence of direct exposure to the public … that seems like a perfectly reasonable explanation,” he said. However, if the employee was a front-desk worker, “then it’s possible the health department would want to make an announcement.

“Somebody who works in a post office and has active tuberculosis and … is coughing and spewing particles in the air, we know that those droplets contain particles that can actually hang around in the air quite some time.”

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that can be spread through the air when a person with an active case coughs or sneezes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disease is most likely to spread to people whom active carriers spend time with everyday, including co-workers.

People who test positive for exposure but not active tuberculosis cannot infect others, though latent cases can eventually become active.

At least 32 of more than 120 employees at the Chantilly post office later tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis on skin tests, but there were no active cases after follow-up chest X-rays, Mr. Andrews said.

Story Continues →