By NOEL MURPHY
A tuberculosis outbreak at the Geelong Advertiser might have been linked to its open-plan office, ‘hot-desking’ and closed air conditioning, according to the Medical Journal of Australia.
A total of 23 people tested positive for latent TB at the newspaper in 2011 after a senior staffer contracted the potentially deadly disease.
More than 100 people were screened by the Department of Health, the journal this week reported.
No active cases of TB were identified but 12 were treated and six managed with symptom monitoring or chest x-ray surveillance.
The original victim’s son contracted an active form of the disease but both were successfully treated.
“The workplace had an open-plan design with low-profile cubicle dividers and closed air conditioning,” a Medical Journal report stated.
“The practice of ‘hot-desking’ (where most staff are not allocated a permanent desk) involved about 75 to 80 per cent of the staff in the main office area.
“The patient with the index case of TB had a permanent desk.”
The report stressed the possible TB transmission came an infected patient with no initially identified risk factors. It cited contributing factors including “a significant delay in presentation and diagnosis and a contained working environment”.
The report was co-authored by Barwon Health’s infectious diseases department head Eugene Athan and infectious diseases registrar Mohammad Bagherirad; Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory scientist Maria Globan; Department of Health public health nurse Peter Trevan, epidemiology and surveillance section’s Elaine Tay, and health protection branch manager — communicable disease, epidemiology and surveillance Nicola Stephens.
“The incidence of TB in Australia is low, with an annual incidence of five to six cases per 100,000 population,” their report stated.
“However, TB continues to pose significant challenges because of migration from countries with a high burden of TB and reactivation of the disease in the older people.
“Adding to the challenge are reported delays in people seeking health care and diagnosis of TB in low-incidence settings where there is a low index of suspicion of TB among both people who may be infected and health professionals.”
— Noel Murphy worked at the Advertiser at the time of the TB incident.
