CDC In Boston To Investigate Illness Striking Homeless
Disease-trackers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Boston Wednesday to study the spread of a deadly bacterial infection among homeless people.
Dr. Anita Barry, director of the Infectious Disease Bureau at the Boston Public Health Commission, said the CDC is interested in the city’s experience because the federal agency is updating guidelines for handling clusters of meningococcal disease, the infection that killed two homeless people in Boston and sickened three others.
Disease-trackers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in Boston Wednesday to study the spread of a deadly bacterial infection among homeless people.
Dr. Anita Barry, director of the Infectious Disease Bureau at the Boston Public Health Commission, said the CDC is interested in the city’s experience because the federal agency is updating guidelines for handling clusters of meningococcal disease, the infection that killed two homeless people in Boston and sickened three others.
“They’re thinking if they look a little more closely at what’s going on in Boston, it might give more useful information,” such as what circumstances increase the risk of infection, she said.