kateyes
Active Member
PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- Behind the county hospital's tall cinderblock walls, a 27-year-old tuberculosis patient who spent years living in Russia sits in a jail cell equipped with a ventilation system that keeps germs from escaping.
Robert Daniels has been locked up indefinitely, perhaps for the rest of his life, since last July. But he has not been charged with a crime. Instead, he suffers from an extensively drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, or XDR-TB. It is considered virtually untreatable.
County health authorities obtained a court order to lock him up as a danger to the public because he failed to take precautions to avoid infecting others. Specifically, he said he did not heed doctors' instructions to wear a mask in public............
THE REST OF THE STORY CAN BE FOUND HERE:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/04/03/tuberculosis.confinement.ap/index.html
THIS IS WHAT WEBMD SAYS ABOUT CONTRACTING TB:
Because the bacteria that cause tuberculosis are transmitted through the air, the disease can be quite contagious. However, it is nearly impossible to catch TB simply by passing an infected person on the street. To be at risk, you must be exposed to the organisms constantly, by living or working in close quarters with someone who has the active disease. Even then, because the bacteria generally stay dormant after they invade the body; only 10% of people infected with TB will ever come down with the active disease. The remaining 90% will show no signs of infection, nor will they be able to spread the disease to others. Dormant infections can eventually become active, though, so even people without symptoms should receive medical treatment.
Once widespread, TB became relatively rare with the help of antibiotics developed in the 1950s. Today, however, a new and highly resistant form has emerged, creating a public-health hazard in many large cities worldwide. If you have TB -- in its active or dormant state -- you must seek medical treatment.
Tuberculosis is generally caused by exposure to microscopic airborne droplets containing the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease is almost never transmitted through clothes, bedding or other personal items. Because most people with TB exhale only a few of these germs with each breath, you can contract the disease only if you are exposed to an infected person for a long time. If you spend eight hours a day for six months, or 24 hours a day for two months, with someone with an active case of TB, you have a 50% chance of getting infected
SO THE QUESTION IS-DOES THIS MAN DESERVE TO BE QUARANTINED/JAILED TO PREVENT THE FURTHER SPREAD OF THIS STRAIN OF TB?