Research letter: Neonatal exposure to active pulmonary tuberculosis in a health care professional

NOSOCOMIAL TRANSMISSION OF TUBERCULOSIS (TB) is a recognized risk. Although many outbreaks of TB in health care settings have been reported, there are few cases of nosocomial transmission to neonates. We report our experience in investigating and managing the exposure over 16 days of 124 neonates, 301 visitors and 219 health care workers to a health care worker with active TB in a neonatal intensive care unit.Nosocomial transmission of tuberculosis (TB) has increased significantly over the last decade.¹However, there are few reported cases of such transmission to neonates.¹ This is fortunate, since neonatal TB is associated with a high mortality.^2,3 After the practice of removing infants from mothers with active pulmonary TB was introduced, neonatal mortality declined significantly.⁴Currently, in developed countries, despite the availability of effective pharmacologic therapy, there are few established guidelines for the surveillance and management of neonates after exposure to an active case of TB. We report the results of our investigation of the neonates, visitors and health care workers who were exposed to a health care professional with active TB who worked in our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).