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Eight Infants Test Positive For TB At El Paso Hospital

  Health screenings reveal that eight infants have tested positive for tuberculosis following the discovery that a nurse's assistant infected with TB was working in the nursery of an El Paso hospital.

But El Paso Public Health Director Robert Resendes said Thursday that out of the eight, five had been previously vaccinated against TB and their results may be false positives. Preventive medical treatments will be offered for all eight infants.

The infected babies don't have active TB, the often deadly and contagious form of the disease.

Health authorities on Thursday also raised to 860 the number of infants who may have been exposed to the worker at Providence Memorial Hospital.

She had reported TB-related symptoms in July but was allowed to continue working for weeks.

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