Nebraska YMCA daycare center under public health emergency for possible tuberculosis exposure
Officials in Nebraska are testing more than 500 children and staff at an Omaha area YMCA drop-in daycare center for possible exposure to tuberculosis after a case at the site prompted a public health emergency.
On Thursday, Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse declared an emergency citing the risk of the infectious disease spreading at the Westview YMCA, in the Omaha suburbs. Exposures would have happened between May and late October. The patient has been isolating at home and is undergoing treatment, Huse said. The fact that the person was in this daycare has made the count of possible exposures especially high. The current estimate is about 500, but the estimate is subject to change as families and siblings are identified and in some cases ruled out.
According to a CDC report, vaccine exemption rates among kindergarteners have increased in 41 states. The infected person was linked to an onset date of symptoms on Aug. 21, requiring health officials to look back to May to fully capture anyone who may have experienced symptoms in prior months they hadn’t thought of as tuberculosis.
Omaha clinics are working to contain the spread. On Saturday and Sunday, Children’s Nebraska, a pediatric hospital in Omaha, planned to hold clinics to test approximately 250 children 4 and younger who could have been exposed in the last 10 weeks. In the coming days, the county is expected to have clinics at the Westview YMCA to test another 350 people using skin and blood tests. Officials will look for latent infection as well, and treat it with medication to ensure it doesn’t become active.
In emailed responses, the YMCA of Greater Omaha said the Westview Childwatch maintains electronic records of check-ins, which helped officials conduct contact tracing for possible exposures. There is no longer a risk of exposure to TB at the center, according to the Health Department, the email said, though the Westview YMCA was closed Thursday and the facility planned to remain for several days to give support staff a chance to conduct testing and to get their children tested.
In 2022, county health officials reported 15 confirmed tuberculosis cases, and 15 through September of 2023. Huse said, “We have a lot of experience working on the prevention of spread and case investigations around this,” referring to public health efforts to minimize the spread and impact of this “vintage” public health disease.