New Jersey Issues Public Health Alert
As we mentioned in a previous article, the State of New Jersey issued a public health alert in an attempt to identify anthrax cases that occurred after September 11 and possible future anthrax cases. The health alert asks hospitals to immedicately begin:
- Reviewing records of patients who had blood cultures or cerebrospinal fluid cultures performed at presentation and were admitted to an intensive care unit since September 11, 2001.
- Reviewing the clinical findings of patients with microbiology laboratory results possibly indicating infection with Bacillus anthracis.
- Reviewing records of emergency department visits for persons with unexplained respiratory failure.
Additional information of this nature may be found at http://www.state.nj.us/health/.