Days Missing
In Disease Confirmation

By Tamara Hartman

Six days of exposure to disease passed between the time when samples were sent to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the day they were reportedly received, delaying the process that informed residents they were at risk, the Queens Tribune has learned.

According to a time table released by the Flushing Hospital doctors who uncovered the outbreak, the New York City Health Department and the New York State Health Department were first called by the hospital on Aug. 23. On Aug. 24, there was conference calling between the health departments, and the CDC. On Aug. 27 samples left for the CDC to be tested and confirm or disprove an outbreak of St. Louis Encephalitis in Queens, according to Ole Pedersen, a spokesperson for Flushing Hospital.

However, a spokesperson for the CDC said that the center received samples on Sept. 2, tested immediately in a 24-hour process, and informed officials on Sept. 3 that there was an outbreak – which resulted in immediate action by the city to stop the disease at the mosquito level.

CDC spokesperson Tom Skinner said that the testing process that confirmed the outbreak is the same one going on to confirm current suspected cases and it takes the same 24-hour period. However, Skinner would not release any CDC finding about the 48 cases currently being tested. He said all information on case confirmation would be released through the City Department of Health.

The Department of Health could not be reached at press-time to discuss the six days of difference between the hospital’s time line and the CDC’s time line and no comment was available from the Mayor’s office or from Borough President Claire Shulman.

However, at a special press conference on Sept. 7 with the Flushing Hospital doctors, they said that the delay of "8 to 9 days" between when they believed they had an outbreak and the diagnosis was confirmed by the CDC were "very frustrating." Dr. Rick Conetta, director of critical care medicine at Flushing Hospital, said that he understood a process and series of procedures had to be gone through before confirmation was made, but he said that it was frustrating for the hospital not to know what they could say to family members who wanted answers about their loved ones.

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