RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Health care providers have been informed by the Department of General Services that the results of nearly 200 patients’ tuberculosis tests may have been impacted by an equipment issue.
The equipment issue was discovered at the department’s Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services and could have led the reporting of false negative results for 177 individuals over a two-month period, according to the Department of General Services’ release.
The DCLS identified that an incorrect setting on a backup centrifuge used to process samples may have resulted in the reduction of its ability to trace amounts of the TB bacteria.
Health care providers have been given a list of patients who could have had false negative results.
The Virginia Department of Health suggested that each individual case is reviewed to determine if any additional tests are needed.
In Virginia, there were 205 reported cases of TB in 2017, according to the VDH, and 9.8 percent of all individuals tested for the bacterial disease came back positive.
New verification and traceability protocols for all TB lab equipment have been enacted as a result of the incident.
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