Tuberculosis patient jailed, charged in Calif. for not taking medication

[Catbird]

I'm curious to see what resolution comes of this. Will he be incarcerated to ensure compliance? Or?

Slippery is the slope...

CBS News:

"Thirty-four-year-old Armando Rodriguez of Stockton was arrested on Tuesday.

San Joaquin County prosecutors have charged him with two counts of refusing to comply with a tuberculosis order to be at home and make appointments to take his medication.

Rodriguez was diagnosed with the disease by a county health center in April.

He is accused of missing an appointment at the health center and not being home on three occasions when officials went to observe him take the drugs."

[jane333]

Treating active cases of TB is a priority in all states, I'd imagine. Immigrants from countries where the disease is prevalent are spreading it to unsuspecting Americans through casual contact in places we all go...the mall, grocery stores, schools. According to our local health dept., a very large number of people have been exposed who don't know it.

The hubby and I both tested positive for exposure back in the late 80's. We were told that someone with an active, untreated condition probably coughed on us in a public place. We had to take tb prevention meds (neither of us had active tb) for 12 months.

A simple skin prick test at your health dept. will tell you if you need to take action to protect your future health.

[sandyd]

I don't think this is the first time. Last one I remember, they did lock the guy up, then had someone see him daily once he was released. I do not remember if the guy ran off or stuck it out with daily health services visits for over a year.

He did have the threat of jail if he did not stick to the release agreement.

[SarahS]

I have seen folks get locked up before, for not taking their tb meds properly. It was hospital confinement, not exactly locked, but still rather involuntary.

[Potemkin]

Originally Posted by Catbird

I'm curious to see what resolution comes of this. Will he be incarcerated to ensure compliance? Or?

Slippery is the slope...

Yes, it is but I am on the fence on this one.

TB is one of those diseases that could severely impact society.

Before my time but I read the history of TB in the US in the early 20th century. How easily people forget history!

We wouldn't want to go through that again especially with the super resistant strains.

Of course, this may be one of those "wink and a nod" kind of things.

He may be poor so he has poor medication compliance.

If he is "confined" then the state/city medical department pays for ALL of the medication, X-rays, hospital room, etc.

But, he just might be a t*rd. Based on this, maybe so.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/...-tb-treatment/

Rodriguez was discharged in March from San Joaquin General Hospital with four medications for active tuberculosis and agreed to take the drugs under observation by a county health official on weekdays and on his own on weekends, authorities said.

He failed to self-administer the drugs on one day, telling a nurse he had gone on an alcohol binge and taken methamphetamine and didn’t want to hurt his liver, Wick said in her letter.

He allegedly refused to take the drugs on another day and then was not at home on three occasions and missed an appointment.

[Mousehound]

I'm sorry. I see this person as a danger to society. Due to his non-compliance he is an active danger to others around him. That is right up there with someone who is HIV positive who actively takes part in unprotected sex. That kind of person would be jailed too. TB kills.

[Catbird]

Originally Posted by Potemkin

Yes, it is but I am on the fence on this one.

TB is one of those diseases that could severely impact society.

Before my time but I read the history of TB in the US in the early 20th century. How easily people forget history!

We wouldn't want to go through that again especially with the super resistant strains.

Of course, this may be one of those "wink and a nod" kind of things.

He may be poor so he has poor medication compliance.

If he is "confined" then the state/city medical department pays for ALL of the medication, X-rays, hospital room, etc.

But, he just might be a t*rd. Based on this, maybe so.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/...-tb-treatment/

I'm on the fence also. Like you, I'm aware of the history and think that most folks have no concept of what an "epidemic" of active TB might be like and how it could impact society.

But, OTOH, the system allows people with other contagious diseases, acute and chronic, to live pretty much as they please, with little to no supervision by public health authorities. And I wonder why the anti-vax folks are allowed to do as they please, in spite of the threat that their actions and choices pose to the general public.

It certainly brings up the question of how do we balance public health with personal freedoms. There's no easy answer to that one.

But you may be right that it's a "wink and nod" thing in this particular case. Still, it's certainly food for thought.

[Potemkin]

Originally Posted by Mousehound

I'm sorry. I see this person as a danger to society. Due to his non-compliance he is an active danger to others around him. That is right up there with someone who is HIV positive who actively takes part in unprotected sex. That kind of person would be jailed too. TB kills.

People easily forget that the mortality for whites in the late 1800s/early 1900's was about 6 per thousand and 12 per thousand for blacks.

[Sonny]

An Uncle on my mom's side live six months as a patient at a TB Sanatorium in Seattle, Wa. The campus is still there, tho they are now ether apts. or condos. At the time he was doing his residency at a Seattle hospital. He contracted TB when he performed mouth to mouth on a 2yo American negro child somewhere out in public, and who sadly died two days later.

[flourbug]

I lived near the former Bonnie Burns Tuberculosis Hospital in NJ. Many of my neighbors worked there when it was a TB sanitarium. In 1955 TB was on the decline so it expanded to become a long term care facility named after one of the doctors. In 1991, the old hospital was purchased by a large corporation that wanted the site for new offices. As part of the deal, a replacement hospital was built nearby. One of the elderly nurses who had worked at Bonnie Burns revealed several pits had been dug on the property during its time as a TB sanitarium, and they were filled with medical waste. When checked, that waste was STILL testing for live TB bacterium almost 50 years after it had been buried.

[Feather]

Flourbug you've got me wondering if the former TB hospital here still has active bacterium.

[Mousehound]

Seriously people, TB is around like MRSA is. The best thing you can do is try to avoid it, and keep your immune system strong and healthy.

[Mousehound]

Worldwide Tuberculosis prevalence 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tu...e-WHO-2009.svg

[Mama Alanna]

My maternal grandfather died when my mother was 5 years old. They had moved to Idaho hoping for the "prairie cure" for his TB. (The dirty air of the city was supposed to cause TB, so the clean air of the western prairies was supposed to cure it.) While he didn't die directly of TB, his weakened lungs couldn't recover from the pneumonia he contracted one winter.

[Kassy]

He failed to self-administer the drugs on one day, telling a nurse he had gone on an alcohol binge and taken methamphetamine and didn’t want to hurt his liver

Priorities.