Hospital's alert over nurse's TB

A Merseyside NHS Trust is tracing patients treated by a nurse who contracted tuberculosis (TB).

The nurse, who works at Aintree Hospital in Fazakerley but also does shifts at Royal Liverpool University Hospital, is making a "good recovery."

Patients, who should get a letter next week, will be offered a chest x-ray but management said it was highly unlikely they would catch TB.

Concerned patients should contact NHS Direct.

I stress again that it is not easy to pick up tuberculosis Dr John Curnow

A spokesperson for Cheshire and Merseyside Health Protection Unit said: "We are currently doing a look-back exercise in both hospitals to identify patients who were treated by the health care worker and to establish what level of contact they had."

Dr John Curnow, Consultant in Health Protection with Cheshire & Merseyside Health Protection Unit, said: "This is a routine investigation to see if any patients or hospital staff have been put at increased risk of infection as a result of contact with the health care worker.

"If so, they will be given information on tuberculosis and offered a chest x-ray as a precaution. In the unlikely event that anyone has picked up the infection they will be given treatment.

"I stress again that it is not easy to pick up tuberculosis and that in all cases the risk will be very low indeed. Furthermore, tuberculosis is these days treatable with appropriate antibiotics."