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A serious screening lapse at an El Paso hospital exposed hundreds of infants to the risk of tuberculosis. The hospital CEO apologized publicly on Tuesday. "I want to apologies to the families that are affected by this," he told news reporters, "As CEO of [the hospital] I and my colleagues take full ownership of our full role in this and making sure we get this right."
Now, parents of the infants who were exposed to the disease are bringing their children back for testing. None have tested positive for TB yet.
The El Paso Department of Health realized that the children's safety was compromised on August 27 th when a hospital nursery worker tested positive for TB. The hospital CEO said that the employee showed symptoms of TB as early as July. According to hospital estimations, as many as 700 newborns were possibly exposed to the highly-contagious illness.
Aided by the Department of Health, the hospital is working to test hundreds of young children who were at the hospital between September 2013 and August 2014. The Department of Health will continue to test infants for the next three weeks, news sources report.