New Jersey Nursing Center Has No Place to Quarantine Contagious Patients

Health officials are still waiting for lab results allowing the child to confirm whether he died of an adenovirus – a common virus that claimed the lives of seven more people this month -this.

The news came hours after the health authorities announced that four more children were infected with the virus.

Laboratory tests confirmed the four new cases of adenovirus, bringing to 23 the number of people affected. Their health conditions have not been made public.

The Wanaque Nursing and Rehabilitation Center of 227 beds did not have enough room to isolate children when they became ill in the facility's ventilation unit, said Dr. Shereef Elnahal, Commissioner for Public Health in New Jersey.

All the children were under fans and their immune system was compromised, making no effort to quarantine them almost impossible, said Elnahal.

"There was no place (in the center) where they could have been safely placed," he said.

►Oct. 26: Viral Outbreak at NJ Medical Center: What We Know

► October 25th: Deadly virus outbreak kept from mother for weeks
► October 24th: A seventh child dies of an adenovirus infection at a New Jersey health center
► 23rd of October: Six children died after an adenovirus outbreak in a New Jersey long term care facility

The Wanaque Center is licensed to care for 92 children and 135 adults and can support more than 60 children whose breathing depends on ventilation.

The cause of the epidemic and the speed with which the virus has spread in children remain unknown, said Elnahal.

"I've already seen respiratory epidemics, but I have not seen it in such a vulnerable group of patients," said Elnahal, who previously worked for the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. "It's the worst (sort of) installation where it could have happened, even if you have an installation that does everything in its power to prevent it."

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A team of investigators and controllers from the New Jersey Department of Health remained on site Thursday at the center, about 25 km northwest of New York. The facility was banned from admitting new patients until the outbreak was declared over, which should last at least four weeks, Elnahal said.

Representatives of the Wanaque Center would not have answered several questions about the epidemic:

• When the staff realized an important problem.
• How they responded to the epidemic.
• Why government inspectors have repeatedly found deficiencies poor patient care and unhealthy practices that could contribute to the spread of infection.
• What did the center's managers do in response to criticism from unions representing nurses and other workers about "staff deterioration, lack of adequate supplies and severe restrictions on employment standards".

The private for-profit center's owner, Wanaque Nursing & Rehabilitation, has retained the services of a Philadelphia-based PR agency to answer questions regarding the outbreak. The agency issued Thursday a statement from the center's administrator, Rowena Bautista, expressing sympathy for the families of the deceased.

The retirement home offers bereavement counseling to staff members, patients and families, she said.

"We are working side by side with medical experts from the Department of Health (New Jersey) and the CDC, and we will be in constant contact with them until this problem is fully resolved," reads the report. the statement, referring to the Federal Government's Centers for Disease Control. and prevention.

State investigators have found no violation of the center's workforce, said Elnahal.

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The four additional children who became ill because of exposure to the adenovirus, a common virus causing mild illnesses like colds and coughs in healthy people but could be deadly to people whose the immune system is weakened, all showed symptoms before Monday, officials said. A laboratory confirmed the adenovirus diagnoses Thursday and Friday.

All children with confirmed cases became ill between September 26th and Monday. State officials would not disclose additional information about their cases, citing patient privacy regulations.

The outbreak was limited to the center ventilator, serving patients requiring mechanical assistance for breathing.

Wednesday, the center of Wanaque had 49 children in the ventilation unit, authorized to accommodate 72 children, health officials said. 20 extra beds are available for older children in another area.

On September 26, the first case of a patient with adenovirus was reported to the state health department. A "group of respiratory diseases" was reported in the center on 9 October after the office closed.

State officials began surveillance work on the premises the next morning. They did not record any specific date of death for a child, with the exception of the seventh victim, who died Tuesday night.

Health officials conducted a surprise inspection over the weekend and discovered "minor hand washing deficiencies". The long-term care facility was cited in the government's annual inspection reports from 2015 to 2018 for instances of poor patient care and unsanitary practices that may spread the infection.

Elnahal described the most recent citations in August as low-level violations that would not pose a risk to patients. They were corrected when the department conducted the surprise inspection on Sunday, he said.