Coronavirus: CDC's old testing guidelines delayed detection of California patient whose condition is now serious
A California woman, who was earlier suspected with COVID-19 was not diagnosed for days only because she had neither traveled to China nor had any contact with those infected.
This delay was due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC ) earlier guidelines, which only tested suspected patients who had either returned from China or had close contact with confirmed cases.
Currently, the woman is receiving treatment at the UC Davis Medical Center after recently testing positive for the disease. “This patient is in serious condition and our prayers go out to her and our family,” California Rep John Garamendi told CNN. She was earlier treated at the NorthBay VacaValley Hospital.
What is worrying, doctors have no clue as to how she contracted the disease, creating fears that the US is already seeing a community spread of the virus.
The new coronavirus has infected more than a dozen people in the US, excluding those evacuated from China and the Diamond Princess Cruise ship.
Earlier, doctors treating her had suspected the COVID- 19. "We requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC since neither Sacramento County nor the California Department of Public Health is doing testing for coronavirus at this time. Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered, " reads a statement from the UC Davis Health.
Some of the CDC's kits -- which were shipped to labs across the country and the world -- are flawed. The agency has not fixed the problem yet.
It is also worrying that there are not enough kits. "Testing protocols have been a point of frustration for many of us,” Governor Gavin Newsom said at a news conference on February 27. California had just 200 testing kits left, he added.
Lauren Sauer, director of operations at the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response in Baltimore, called the situation alarming. “It is a challenge when the most important piece of information — does this person have this disease, yes or no — is not accessible and there’s no timeline for improved accessibility, she told the New York Times.
Fears of community spread
The delay also meant that health authorities were unaware of a possible community spread within the country. Community spread means health authorities do not know the source of the infection. But the CDC said the patient may have unwittingly contracted the disease from an infected traveler.
Now, authorities are scrambling to not only trace the source of her infection but also to identify people who may have come into contact with her. The hospital is now monitoring health care workers who had treated her. Some employees at the medical center have been asked to stay home.
As of now, officials have placed her family under quarantine for 14 days, Solano County Health and Social Services Public Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas said in a press conference today. Solano County is also working to identify potential interactions with people that are not employees in the workplace, he added.
CDC's response
According to the CDC officials, they had been unaware that doctors in California made an urgent appeal for diagnostic testing of the woman.
Now, the agency has altered its guidelines. "As soon as that case was recognized, we met and we revised our case definition for persons under investigation," Dr Robert R Redfield, the director of the CDC, told CNN.
The CDC website now has a new health advisory that recommends a test when a clinician or individual suspects coronavirus, he added.
Regarding the shortfall of test kits, Dr Redfield has promised that state physicians would have a much greater ability to test patients who were showing symptoms, a change, according to Newsom, “cannot happen soon enough.”