Pittsburgh-based UPMC is notifying approximately 4,700 patients after officials discovered an employee who had been in contact with patients tested positive for tuberculosis, according to Trib Live.
A spokesperson for the health system said the employee worked in the emergency department at Pittsburgh-based UPMC Presbyterian. The employee had also been seen as a patient at a UPMC Presbyterian ophthalmology clinic and a Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC physician's office, Action News-4 reports.
UPMC officials estimate 4,700 people, mostly emergency patients, may have come into contact with the employee during the "exposure window" between Oct. 28, 2017, and Feb. 28, 2018 — the period during which officials estimate the employee was diagnosed and the widest possible range during which the individual could have been contagious, a UPMC spokesperson told Trib Live.
Officials said the employee is on leave as they recover from the disease.
"While the likelihood of contracting TB from that employee is thought to be low, out of an abundance of caution we are collaborating with the Allegheny County Health Department and taking careful steps to both notify and test patients and staff who may have been exposed to this employee at no charge," UPMC said in an April 20 statement obtained by Action News-4.