Image courtesy of Steve Rhode on Flickr, CC
An article came into the HealthMap system reporting that 52 residents of an assisted living community in Fairfax County, VA exhibited symptoms of acute respiratory illness. The symptoms of respiratory infection ranged from cough to pneumonia, resulting in two deaths. The RFI was sent on 12 July 2019 at 8:37AM EST.
The first RFI response came on 12 July 2019 at 9:08AM, and provided information from a new media source that reported that the assisted living community had stopped accepting new residents due to the large number of illnesses.
HealthMap further brought in more media updates, including an updated case count of 63 total cases were confirmed, with the last case being identified on July 15, 2019. The Fairfax County Health Department published a highly detailed report of the event. The CDC collected specimens from at least 17 cases and have determined the causal agent of this outbreak to be rhinovirus. This outbreak was verified by the EpiCore system.
As of July 29, 2019, the assisted living community has reopened under normal operations.
- https://epicore.org/#/home
- https://epicore.org/#/events_public
- https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2019/07/2-dead-from-respiratory-infection-outbreak-at-va-assisted-living-community/
- https://wamu.org/story/19/07/11/two-dead-others-hospitalized-in-virus-outbreak-at-fairfax-county-retirement-community/
- https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/health/outbreak-investigation-assisted-living-facility-springfield
