Pandemic Timeline

Month: January 2007

PCR test results create false alarm at a hospital

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center thought it had an outbreak of whooping cough.  Nearly 1,000 staff members were given a PCR test.  142 of them came back positive. Later, more definitive testing was done.  Not a single case of whooping cough was confirmed with the definitive test. Instead, it appears that the staff probably had ordinary respiratory…