A Dangerous Delay: A Tragic Reminder to School Officials of the Importance of Notifying Immunocompromised Students of Viral Outbreaks

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On May 16, The Washington Post  published an important story that is mandatory reading for every family contending with Crohns Disease.  The article, A Dangerous Delay, by investigative journalists Jenn Abelson, Amy Brittain, and Sarah Larimer, relays the harrowing and deeply tragic series of events surrounding The University of Maryland's delay of 18 days in informing students of an outbreak of a particularly virulent adenovirus strain on campus.

The story's focus, indeed the reason it is tragic, is Olivia Shea Paregol, a freshman student at Maryland in the Fall of 2018.  Olivia was diagnosed with Crohns Disease in her senior year of high school, and was pursuing treatment with Humira injections.  All Crohns patients are familiar with the treatment alternatives available, which have in common the mechanism of diminishing the individual's immune response, in varying degrees and in differing ways.

As relayed in the Washington Post story, a humid and rain soaked summer in Maryland caused mold to grow at Elkton Hall dormatory on the College Park campus, where Olivia resided.  Mold-related respiratory distress made Olivia, already immunocompromised due to the Crohns treatment, especially susceptible to the subsequent adenovirus exposure.  This scenario is one that parents of Crohns patients (and indeed the patients themselves, depending upon their age) fear.  Yet, it is theoretically manageable, provided the physicians and nurses know what they are treating. 

It is here where the Washington Post takes the reader in an unexpected, and devastating, direction.  Olivia was initially thought to be suffering from a bacterial respiratory infection.  What the University apparently knew, that Olivia's doctors did not -- and would not for eighteen days -- is that a severe form of adenovirus had been discovered on the Maryland campus.  As Olivia failed to respond to antibiotic treatments and her condition worsened, the fact that a virulent respiratory virus remained secret.

By the time Olivia's father was able to learn from the University's health center about the adenovirus outbreak and ensure that information was conveyed to Olivia's doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital, it was too late.  The article's description of Olivia's last days makes for heart breaking reading; but for the parents of Crohns patients it is also essential reading.

A compelling piece of investigatory journalism, the article carefully, thoroughly, and compassionately sets forth the facts.  Readers may draw their own conclusions about whether or not the University acted responsibly and appropriately, and whether the acts and omissions that comprise the article's narrative constitute a moral failure.  For Crohns families in particular, the article is a potent and moving reminder that ostensibly minor health threats pose serious risk to the immunologically compromised.  The article is also a sad reminder that Crohns patients and their families must maintain a perpetual and heightened state of alert against these threats.

​For more information about adenovirus see NIH's Patient Information sheet.