CHUM doctor who tested positive for virus treated patients, worked with colleagues
The Centre hospitalier de l’université de Montrèal has decided against sending home for self-isolation any health workers who might have been exposed to a lung specialist who has since tested positive for the pandemic COVID -19.
The physician treated some patients at the CHUM superhospital on Viger Ave. on Monday before learning he was infected with the highly contagious coronavirus that causes the respiratory illness.
He had returned from Europe on Sunday.
Initially, he was asymptomatic, having travelled from a country where there was little risk of COVID -19.
He examined about 10 patients before realizing at the end of Monday that he had symptoms. He is now in self-isolation, Dr. Fabrice Brunet, executive director of the CHUM, confirmed to the Montreal Gazette on Friday.
As soon as the doctor felt unwell, he presented himself for testing and discovered he had COVID -19. Brunet said the hospital network has since followed up on all the patients who were examined by the infected physician.
“All the patients have been re-examined and followed up by another lung specialist, and for now, there is no contamination observed. We are continuing to follow these patients.”
Some are outpatients and others in-patients.
Those patients who were already in the hospital have been put into isolation.
The patients who have returned home are being monitored by the CHUM, Brunet added.
On Tuesday, the Quebec Health Ministry ordered all health workers returning from abroad to self-isolate for 14 days.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID -19 to be a pandemic, the highest possible public-health alert.
Also on Wednesday, a group of fewer than 10 nurses and other health professionals at Notre-dame Hospital were sent home in voluntary isolation after coming into contact on Monday with a patient who has COVID -19.
Asked why the CHUM has not taken the precaution of sending home health professionals who might have come into contact with the infected lung specialist, Brunet responded: “They were examined and they were informed, and we will continue to monitor them. As long as they don’t have symptoms, for the moment they are not in confinement.”
Brunet was unable to specify the number of health professionals who might have been around the affected doctor.
Brunet defended the CHUM’S handling of the situation, adding that at the time the doctor returned to practice at the hospital on Monday, “it was not announced that the country (he came from) was at risk.”
“The pandemic was declared only afterward,” Brunet added.
He noted that the CHUM superhospital has single-patient rooms, which prevent the transmission of viruses and superbugs.
“For patients who are already hospitalized, they are in an optimal setting. We have taken all the measures necessary to ensure the safety of patients.”
Meanwhile, an employee of the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital in Laval was sent home to self-isolate after testing positive for COVID -19.
As a precaution, patients in one of the units where the employee was working have been placed in isolation, according to a statement by the Laval health authority Friday.
The employee was asymptomatic while working at the facility.
However, the following day the individual did develop symptoms, advised a manager and was tested for the coronavirus.
We have taken all the measures necessary to ensure the safety of patients.