Tuberculosis exposure advisory issued for Stanton hospital

Anyone who visited a Yellowknife hospital’s emergency room during a six-hour period on June 19 was potentially exposed to an infectious case of tuberculosis, the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer says.

An advisory warning of the exposure was issued after acting chief public health officer Dr André Corriveau told the CBC on Wednesday that a tuberculosis outbreak was in progress.

The NWT’s health authority then told Cabin Radio it had been actively reducing Yellowknife public health services to free up capacity to tackle an outbreak since last week.

Unusually, the Department of Health and Social Services only confirmed an outbreak – with two cases identified so far – in response to questions from reporters on Wednesday afternoon.

That was followed by the issuing of an advisory “to notify the public of potential exposure to an infectious case of tuberculosis.”

The department said the advisory was being “issued for precautionary reasons only.”

If you were in the Stanton Territorial Hospital emergency room at any point between 8:58am and 3:21pm on June 19, 2024, you were potentially exposed and should call the 811 advice line for instructions.

“TB is a bacterial disease that affects mainly the lungs and can be transmitted through air particles,” the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer stated in Wednesday afternoon’s advisory.

“Many factors are considered when determining if an exposure to TB is significant. TB is a slow-growing bacteria and takes a long time to develop from infection (usually no symptoms) to disease (cough, fever, night sweats, weight loss, chest pain, bloody sputum).

“Most people exposed to someone with TB never get infected or go on to develop disease. However, a small proportion of the exposed may be more susceptible to infection and developing TB disease than others.”

Even people infected with TB bacteria may not necessarily have TB, the advisory added. “This just means that you have a TB infection. The good news is TB infection is easily curable with antibiotics.”

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