OFFICIALS STEP UP EFFORTS FOR TB TESTS HEALTH WORKERS CONTACT THOSE WHO NEED TESTS, RESULTS.(LOCAL) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

Byline: KATRICE HARDY THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT

CHESAPEAKE -- Health officials on Wednesday increased efforts to persuade people to show up for tuberculosis tests prompted by the death of a local nurse.

Local workers began phoning people who had not come in for recommended TB tests as of Tuesday. They also called those who already have had the tests to remind them to return for their results.

The Chesapeake Health Department has sent letters to about 720 people who were patients at Chesapeake General Hospital between October and April, when nurse Deborah Byrd Chrysostomides worked while having TB symptoms. Those people had been treated during that time in an inpatient surgical unit where Chrysostomides was assigned. The nurse died June 12.

Between Monday and Wednesday, about 930 people were tested for TB, the majority of them at Oscar F. Smith High School. Health Department officials said that almost 600 of those tested were people who had visited hospital patients and were concerned that they, too, might have been exposed to TB. That meant that several hundred people who had been patients still had not shown up for recommended screenings as of Wednesday.

People who received skin tests Monday at the high school are supposed to return today for their results. The results will give health officials their first large-scale look at how many people may been infected.

People who fail to have their tests read in a timely manner will have to repeat them, said Chesapeake Health Director Nancy Welch.

'Results are unreliable if you wait to come back,' said Paul Colson, program director at the Charles P. Felton National Tuberculosis Center at Harlem Hospital in New York.

This week's TB testing is the most widespread since Chrysostomides' death. Many of the nurse's relatives, close friends and co-workers had been tested already.

So far, health officials have said, seven people have tested positive for TB bacteria, but none has developed an active, contagious form of the disease.

State and local health officials would not identify the nurse, citing privacy laws. The Virginian-Pilot learned her identity through other sources.

Testing will continue through Friday at Oscar F. Smith and during the weekend at the Chesapeake Health Department. People can also be tested at other local health departments.

More information on the tests is available weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through a Chesapeake Health Department hot line, (757) 382-8721.

Reach Katrice Hardy at 222-5857 or katrice.franklin pilotonline.

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Fact Box

Chesapeake Health Department is operating a tuberculosis hot line, (757) 382-8721, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

Location for tests

Chesapeake: Oscar F. Smith High School, 1994 Tiger Drive, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Friday. Testing also will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Chesapeake Health Department, 748 N. Battlefield Blvd. Health officials will schedule return visits for those initially tested.

Virginia Beach: Virginia Beach Department of Public Health, 4452 Corporation Lane, 4 to 6 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday . Return visits will be 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 1. Virginia Beach residents can call 518-2700 for more information about the tests. Select the 'Chesapeake nurse TB investigation' option.

Norfolk: To set up a testing appointment with the Norfolk Health Department, call 683-8384 or 683-2733. That department will be giving tests at its main office on 830 S. Hampton Ave. 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays except Thursdays.