The New Jersey Department of Health said Thursday it has no plans to move the remaining patients from a medical facility for the severely disabled where 10 children have died of a viral outbreak.
The “medically-fragile” children are long-term residents at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Haskell, New Jersey, where 27 patients are confirmed sick with adenovirus, a typically mild respiratory illness that can have severe consequences for people with compromised immune systems.
“Because these children have such compromised immune systems at baseline, moving them to another facility would pose significant challenges,” a spokeswoman for the state Health Department said Thursday in an email to the Washington Times.
“We must assess whether the benefit outweighs the risk, but this is not something we are recommending at this time. The facility is not admitting new residents for the duration of the outbreak,” the spokeswoman said.
Two other facilities in New Jersey that care for “medically-fragile” children also are reporting cases of a viral outbreak.
A premature infant has died and three others have been infected by a bacterial infection of Acinetobacter baumannii at University Hospital in Newark, NBC News reported.
At the Voorhees Pediatric Facility in southern New Jersey, four children have been diagnosed with adenovirus, NJ.com reported Wednesday. But it is not the same strain as the one confirmed at Wanaque, which is adenovirus-7.
The Health Department said Wednesday it will dispatch a team of infection control experts and epidemiologists to the locations to conduct training and assessments of procedures.
The Health Department earlier had documented a failure of Wanaque staff to practice good hand hygiene in an unannounced inspection visit on Oct. 21.
The strain of adenovirus confirmed at the Wanaque facility is associated with communal living arrangements and is known to cause severe illness, specifically acute respiratory disease, health officials said.
The patients treated at Wanaque and similar facilities require round-the-clock and intensive care. Many have tracheostomy or feeding tubes and are unable to walk or move on their own.
The virus is transmitted through close personal contact such as touching or shaking hands, through the air by coughing or sneezing, and by touching an object or surface tainted by the virus then touching the mouth, nose or eyes before washing hands.
At least one staffer at Wanaque tested positive for the adenovirus strain circulating at the facility, but has since recovered.
The outbreak at Wanaque is believed to have started Sept. 26. The adenovirus has an incubation period of two to 14 days. The Health Department said it was first notified on Oct. 9 and the latest confirmed case occurred on Oct. 29.
The death of the 10th child at the facility came one day after health officials released a report on a surprise inspection of the facility on Oct. 21. The report documented numerous instances of staff failing to perform standard hand hygiene, specifically when moving between touching tubes that carry fecal matter to feeding or respiratory tubes.
“The Department didn’t wait for the final results of the inspection to take action to improve infection control at Wanaque Center,” New Jersey Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal said Tuesday.
Dr. Elnahal added that the Health Department dispatched a member of the agency’s Communicable Disease Service on-site at the facility and that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is assisting with lab testing and expertise.
The last inspection of the Wanaque facility took place in 2016.
No new patients will be admitted to the Wanaque Center until the outbreak is under control, a step by health officials short of revoking the facility’s operating license.
The Health Department didn’t confirm how many pediatric patients are currently in the facility but said it has 92 pediatric beds, with a 72-bed unit for children on ventilators. Another area of the facility has a 20-bed pediatric unit.
• Laura Kelly can be reached at lkelly@washingtontimes.com.
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