Hundreds Tested for Bovine Tuberculosis in Nevada

Health officials in the Las Vegas, Nevada, area are asking hundreds of parents to have themselves and their children tested, after a mother and her two children died of bovine tuberculosis at a neonatal intensive care unit, earlier this year.

Babies, family members, and hospital staff who were at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center's neonatal unit between May and August, 2013, are being tested, according to health officials with the Southern Nevada Health District.  So far, some 26 people have tested positive for infection, though most of these are latent, which means that the people infected are neither contagious nor do they show symptoms.

Bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) is a close relative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes human tuberculosis.  While it typically infects cattle, it is capable of jumping species and can infect a wide range of mammals.  It is not uncommon for humans to contract the disease, especially when they are in close contact with infected animals such as cattle or pigs.  The disease is also known to infect coyotes, deer, domestic cats, foxes, llamas, opossums and rodents.  It rarely infects sheep and horses.

It can be transmitted in a number of ways; including by inhaling aerosols, such as from the cough or exhaled air of an infected animal; or through contact with sputum, urine, feces or pus.  Symptoms include coughing, chest pain, fever and fatigue.

Health officials said they believe that the woman contracted the disease by eating or drinking an  unpasteurized dairy product from Latin America.  The 25-year-old mother was sick before she gave birth to extremely premature twins in Las Vegas in early May.  One of the babies died three weeks later of respiratory failure and extreme prematurity, without having been tested, according to the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner.

The second child was tested and received treatment, but died on August 1.

Meanwhile, the mother’s conditioned worsened and she was transferred to a hospital in southern California for “a higher level of care,” according to a report from the health district.  She died there, from what an autopsy revealed was tuberculosis meningitis.

According to media reports, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assisted in the investigation until last week.  It was not known if they ceased participation because of the U.S. government shutdown or for some other reason.

Tuberculosis can be fatal, if not treated properly.  According to the CDC, there were 569 tuberculosis deaths in the United States in 2010, the latest year for which data are available.

The disease saw a resurgence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as strains resistant to multiple antibiotics developed.  However, since 1992, the disease has had a steady decline in the U.S., and in 2012 reached the lowest level of reported infection since 1953, when reporting began.

 

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