Health dept., Cedar Point prevented TB outbreak

SANDUSKY — The Erie County Health Department and Cedar Point apparently succeeded in preventing an outbreak of tuberculosis after an infected young woman came from outside the country to work at the park in May. Claims that have been spread on social media about a tuberculosis outbreak at Cedar Point are false, said Pete Schade, Erie County's health commissioner. Tests of other Cedar Point employees confirm that the infection did not spread. The infected person, a 20-year-old woman from Colombia, has no symptoms and apparently has inactive tuberculosis, also known as TB. She has been in isolation at Cedar Point but may be allowed to work this week after being declared clean of the disease. "It's a little different from the usual," Schade said. "It showcases why we're here." Cedar Point did not provide immediate comment after the Register reached out to a spokesman. The U.S. State Department, which had notified Ohio about the young woman, referred a request for comment to another agency. How did it happen? Schade offered the following chronicle of events: • In May, the U.S. State Department notified Ohio's state health department about an infected young woman coming to Sandusky, and the state agency notified the Erie County Health Department. Schade said he did not know how the young woman's infection came to the federal government's attention or why she was let into the country. The Register has asked the State Department those questions. In response, the State Department's press office sent a brief statement: "Visa records are confidential under U.S. law; therefore, we cannot comment on individual cases. For additional information, I would refer you to (the Department of Homeland Security.)" The Register has now posed its questions to Homeland Security and is awaiting a response. • The young woman had only had time to attend an orientation with about 100 people. The health department immediately began work to prevent other infections, Schade said. • Cedar Point put the young woman in isolation in her own cottage, and the health department sent nurses and infection specialists to Cedar Point and tested all of the young people who had been in orientation with the infected woman. All tested negative, Schade said. • All of the young people were retested last week. Two showed signs of a possible infection, but X-rays were negative, Schade said. "The test was probably a false positive or something like that," Schade said. Park cooperating with health dept. Schade said Cedar Point did nothing wrong and has been cooperative with the health department. "It's not really their fault," he said. He said the young woman also has been cooperative. "She has been a good kid to deal with," he said. Schade said the incident will wind up costing the health department about $70,000. By law, the Erie County commissioners must pay the cost, so the commissioners will be billed soon, he said. At one point, about a dozen nurses were at Cedar Point. Aside from the work done by health department employees, the health department has been buying food for the young woman, he said. The federal government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that tuberculosis is caused by bacteria. Posts on social media had inaccurately claimed the TB at Cedar Point was caused by mold. Not everyone who has TB becomes sick; it can either be inactive or active. It usually affects the lungs when people become sick. The CDC estimates up to 13 million people in the United States live with inactive TB. The agency says in 2023, there were 9,633 cases of TB disease reported in the U.S.