Adenovirus outbreak

angelburst29

The Living Force
I just came across this report on local news. I thought, I was fairly up on most of the child-hood symptoms and related descriptions like measles and the different forms of infections that are related to various flu strains and respiratory diseases but this is the first that I have come across the descriptive term, "Adenovirus outbreak"?

The outbreak is being reported in two Pediatric Nursing Home facilities in New Jersey. Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Haskell, N. J. caused by adenovirus type 7 and Voorhees Pediatric Facility, N.J. caused by adenovirus type 3, a different strain than the one in Wanaque.

The report, itself, seems to center around the need for better infection control within the (certified) facilities but lacks any information on the age group of the children affected by Adenovirus? Because of the two different strains within two separate nursing facilities, I have to wonder if there might be some type of medical testing going on with experimental vaccines?


November 19, 2018 - 11th Child Dies in Adenovirus Outbreak in New Jersey
11th Child Dies in Adenovirus Outbreak in New Jersey

An 11th child has died and 23 additional children have become sick in connection with an adenovirus outbreak at a New Jersey health care facility, the state’s Department of Health announced Friday.

In addition to those who have died, a total of 35 people have become sick at this facility from this outbreak.

The children have weakened immune systems and other serious medical issues, and many of them require assistance to breathe and function.
They became sick at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Haskell, New Jersey.

An ongoing investigation has revealed that not being able to separate the sick from those without symptoms — in part due to “limitations in the facilities” — is among the “major reasons for the outbreak being as severe as it has been,” Dr. Shereef Elnahal, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health, said Friday.

But after deaths and hospitalizations, the facility now has enough space to separate them.

“Up until this week, it has not been possible to completely separate those patients,” Elnahal said. “But now, due to decreasing census at the facility, it is.”

On Thursday, health officials requested help separating those who are sick, putting out a statewide call for volunteers from New Jersey Medical Reserve Corps. The health department has required that the Wanaque facility finish the process by Wednesday.

“The fact that we are continuing to see new, confirmed cases at this point, despite all efforts toward strict adherence to protocols, has made the facility’s layout limitations clear,” Elnahal said in a statement this week.

Citing “serious infection control deficiencies cited in ongoing inspections,” the health department has also required the Wanaque facility to hire new staffers with expertise in infection control, including an infectious disease doctor.

State health officials are prohibiting any new admissions to the facility, and requests to readmit former residents must be specifically approved.

More on the outbreak
State health officials have said the outbreak can be declared over only once four weeks pass without an additional case. Symptoms may appear two to 14 days after being exposed to the virus, the state health department said.

The children affected by the outbreak became ill between September 26 and November 12, according to the health department. The number has risen from 18 cases, including six deaths, announced last month by the health department.

A staff member was also affected by the outbreak but has recovered.

The outbreak in the Wanaque facility was caused by adenovirus type 7. This type is “most commonly associated with acute respiratory disease,” according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This is an extremely severe strain of adenovirus that couldn’t have occurred in a worse place,” Elnahal said Friday.

Other types of adenovirus infections can cause flu-like symptoms, pinkeye and diarrhea.

Eight cases of adenovirus have also been found among children at a second New Jersey facility, Voorhees Pediatric Facility. However, tests suggest that the culprit is adenovirus type 3, a different strain than the one in Wanaque.

Patients at the Voorhees facility became ill between October 20 and November 9. A previous inspection by the state health department found no infection control problems and issued no citations.

Health officials say they are stepping up efforts to strengthen infection control at such facilities in the state. The health department announced plans last month to deploy a team of infection control experts to visit University Hospital and four pediatric long-term care facilities this month, including the Wanaque and Voorhees facilities, where experts will train staffers and evaluate how these facilities prevent and control infections.

“Facility outbreaks are not always preventable, but in response to what we have seen in Wanaque, we are taking aggressive steps to minimize the chance they occur among the most vulnerable patients in New Jersey,” Elnahal said in a statement.

Adenoviruses are often spread by touching a contaminated person or surface, or through the air by coughing or sneezing. They are known to persist on unclean surfaces and medical instruments for long periods of time, and they may not be eliminated by common disinfectants, but they rarely cause severe illness in healthy people. However, people with weakened immune systems have a higher risk of severe disease, and they may remain contagious long after they recover, according to the CDC.

The infections and deaths come amid questions — from former Wanaque Center employees, the mothers of children who got sick at the facility, and Elnahal himself — about whether facility standards are high enough and whether more could have been done to prevent this from happening.

Elnahal said in a statement that the findings of a recent unannounced health inspection at the Wanaque facility “raise questions about whether these general longterm care standards are optimal for this vulnerable population of medically fragile children.”

In statements last month, the Wanaque facility said that it’s working alongside health experts to investigate the outbreak and that it “promptly notified all appropriate government agencies when the virus was initially identified.” According to state health department spokeswoman Nicole Kirgan, health officials were notified of respiratory illness at the facility on October 9, and the facility notified parents 10 days later, on October 19.

The facility has declined multiple requests for comment.


* Wanaque Center For Nursing & Rehabilitation, in Haskell, NJ
Wanaque Center For Nursing & Rehabilitation, The in Haskell, NJ - Medicare and Medicaid Certified Nursing Home

Wanaque Center For Nursing & Rehabilitation, The is a medicare and medicaid certified nursing home in Haskell, New Jersey. It is located in Passaic county at 1433 Ringwood Ave, Haskell, New Jersey 07420. You can reach out to the office of Wanaque Center For Nursing & Rehabilitation. This skilled
nursing facility has 227 federally certified beds. Its legal business name is Wanaque Nursing & Rehabilitation Llc and has the following ownership type - For Profit - Corporation.

Wanaque Center For Nursing & Rehabilitation, The is certified by CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and participates in both medicare and medicaid program. This means if you are part of medicare or medicaid program, you may consider this nursing facility for your medical needs. It was first certified by CMS in 1986 (32 years certified) and the last quality survey was conducted in May, 2017.

Wanaque Nursing & Rehabilitation Llc is a health care organization with Pediatric Skilled Nursing Facility listed as their primary medical specialization.


* Voorhees Pediatric Facility in Voorhees, N.J.
Voorhees Pediatric Facility Voorhees NJ

Voorhees Pediatric Facility is a medium-sized nursing home facility in Voorhees, New Jersey ( Camden county ).

Diabetes Children Beds: 119

They have 119 beds - Voorhees Pediatric Facility participates in Medicare and Medicaid and are classified as a For profit - Corporation ownership. They offer family councils. They are not located inside of a hospital. They do not belong to a continuing care community.
 
11.21.2018 - University Freshman becomes latest casualty of Adenovirus
University freshman becomes latest casualty of adenovirus

An 18-year-old University of Maryland student died on Sunday from complications related to adenovirus, a family of viruses that has claimed many lives in recent months.

Olivia Paregol, 18, “appeared to be getting sicker and sicker” in recent weeks, her father, Ian Paregol, told Washington, D.C., local news station WJLA. She had already been ill when she was diagnosed with adenovirus, which is not typically deadly. In most cases, the virus causes cold and flu symptoms like sore throat, fever and diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but it can also lead to neurological diseases. However, in people with a compromised immune system, the virus can be fatal. At the time of her death, the teen had also been battling Crohn’s disease.

The university confirmed that the first case of adenovirus was diagnosed on campus on Nov. 1, and since then, six cases in total have been reported at the school. A severe version of the virus — adenovirus Type 7 — was one of those identified, University Health Center director David McBride said in a statement. Paregol lived in a dormitory on the university’s campus, where she likely contracted the virus.

Though adenovirus is rarely fatal, it is easy to catch. According to the CDC, the virus can be caught while airborne after a cough or a sneeze. It can also come from close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands, as well as touching a contaminated surface, then putting your unwashed hand to your mouth, nose or eyes. The virus is persistent too — it can live for a long time on a surface, even one that’s been disinfected. It can also linger in a patient’s system and remain contagious after the person becomes asymptomatic.

Paregol’s grieving family is now questioning whether the freshman’s death was related to a mold outbreak in some dorms, the Baltimore Sun reports. The teen was a resident of Elkton Hall, which had previously been evacuated for mold remediation. The university, however, denies that there is a connection.

Paregol’s symptoms started first as a cough and then developed into pneumonia. Her father confirmed that the teen had visited the University Health Center several times throughout the semester. Her father says that if the university had known there was an adenovirus outbreak, they also should have known that she was at high risk, since immune-system-compromising medication she was taking to treat her Crohn’s was dispensed by the health center. She had allegedly also been taken to the emergency room multiple times throughout the course of her sickness, but her condition kept worsening.

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Olivia Paregol had a compromised immune system when she succumbed to adenovirus. (Photo: Courtesy of CNN.com)

The teen was less than a semester into her tenure at the university, where she was studying criminology, when she died at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her father wonders whether the information came too late — in terms of both identifying the outbreak and diagnosing Olivia’s illness. “If they would have known a week earlier, I think there would have been a different result,” he told the Baltimore Sun. “This should never have happened.” Paregol described his daughter as a free spirit who was always bringing others “into the fold” — a sweet kid who was enjoying the freedom of living on a college campus while maintaining her grades.

Now the CDC, the Maryland Department of Health and the Prince George’s County Health Department are launching an investigation into the outbreak. Brian Bachus, chief of the state health department’s division of outbreak investigations, told the Baltimore Sun that it isn’t unusual for an adenovirus outbreak to occur at a university at this time of year. He said this could be because students go to different physicians and underreport their cases.

Meanwhile, the school is addressing the epidemic by vigorously cleaning “high-touch surfaces” and restrooms. It will also change out self-serve utensils in the cafeteria every 15 minutes. It’s urging anyone with adenovirus-like symptoms — especially those with a weakened immune system or a condition like asthma and diabetes — to visit a physician within 48 hours of detecting those symptoms.

Adenovirus has already sickened 34 children and young people in nearby New Jersey, where it took over a health care facility for the “medically fragile.” Of those, 11 children have died.

The CDC recommends frequent hand washing, covering your mouth while coughing and sneezing, avoiding shared cups and utensils, and even refraining from kissing as vigilant precautionary measures against the stubborn adenovirus, for which there is no known cure.
 
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