Editorial: Wanaque outbreak crisis requires more detailed answers

North Jersey Editorial Board
North Jersey Record

How we treat the most vulnerable in society speaks volumes about who we are as a people, and about our values, and about our priorities.

Judging by the horrific tragedy still unfolding at a long-term care center in Wanaque, where nine “medically fragile” children have died and a total of 27 people — including one staff member — have been sickened by a virus outbreak, we are not treating them well at all.

New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Shereef Elnahal, left, speaks about the adenovirus outbreak as New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy looks on during a press conference at the The Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation on Oct. 24.

The children, long-term patients at the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in the Haskell section of the borough, have complex medical needs and rely upon ventilators to breathe. According to the state Health Department, they were all diagnosed with adenovirus, which causes a mild respiratory illness in otherwise healthy people but can be lethal for those with weakened immune systems.

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Though many details about the origins and spread of the virus have remained murky, thanks to a lack of full transparency from the facility’s owner and state health officials, the Health Department has said the children became ill between Sept. 26 and Oct. 22. Officials still have not disclosed when the first six deaths occurred and have refused to release even the ages of the children who have died.

“This is a tragic situation,” said Dr. Shereef Elnahal, the state health commissioner. "Our thoughts are with the families who are grieving right now. We are working every day to ensure all infection control protocols are continuously followed and closely monitoring the situation at the facility.”

Nine children have died as a result of a severe viral outbreak in the ventilator unit of a long-term care center in Wanaque.

Questions about how vigorously these sorts of facilities are monitored and maintained to guard against such outbreaks in general remain unanswered. Another question that remains is why the center failed, initially, to properly inform all parents or guardians who have children there about the outbreak.

Kristine Deleg, whose 16-year-old daughter Elizabeth died from complications from the virus in St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson on Oct. 23, nearly three weeks after the initial suspected case, told NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network New Jersey that she didn’t learn of the outbreak until the day before her daughter’s death.

Kristine Deleg of Ossining looks at a photograph of her daughter Elizabeth Poulos. Elizabeth, 16, was one of seven residents of the Wanaque Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation who died after an outbreak of audenovirus at the facility.

Moreover, state officials and the center’s private, for-profit owner, Wanaque Nursing & Rehabilitation, have been less than forthcoming in regard to many other concerns, including when staff first realized there was a significant problem, how it responded to the outbreak, past deficiencies cited by inspectors regarding poor patient care and unsanitary practices, and criticism from unions representing nurses and workers over “worsening staff levels, lack of adequate supplies, and severe cutbacks to job standards.”

According to Elnahal, we are still a few weeks from when the outbreak can be declared safely over. He said “facility outbreaks are not always preventable” but that going forward, “we are taking aggressive steps to minimize the chance they occur among the most vulnerable patients in New Jersey.”

While all that is well and good, it is not good enough. Nine children are dead and at least 17 other children are sick because of the spread of this virus.

Reaction after the fact is one thing. What we want to know, what the public wants to know, is how this happened in the first place, and what is being done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

If the state Health Department won’t provide more concrete details and give us a better timeline of events, then the Legislature should convene special hearings to get some answers. What we have been getting so far falls well short of what is required.

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