Milwaukee Health Department computers knocked out by virus

A virus hit the computer network at the Milwaukee Health Department and it could be several more days before the problem is fixed.

It’s the latest setback at the embattled Health Department. Earlier this year, Health Commissioner Bevan Baker resigned after problems were uncovered in the childhood lead poisoning prevention program.

Due to the computer virus, some employees tell CBS 58 it’s been a week since they’ve able to access their computer and email.

Nancy Olson, the city’s chief information officer, says the virus infected the health department computers on March 27. Olson says the virus was contained and did not impact any other city departments.

Clarene Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the health department tells CBS 58, “To our knowledge there has not been any compromise to public information.”

Mitchell says although this caused brief disruptions at health department clinics, they were still able to provide all services. Mitchell adds some computers are back up and running, but the computer network is not fully operational yet.

Olson says IT workers are in the process of going through each computer on the network to ensure the virus is gone. It’s unclear how long that will take, but Olson hopes it will be done by the end of the week.

Officials do not know the source of the virus yet, but Olson says it doesn’t appear to be any kind of deliberate cyberattack.