An infectious woman wanted by the police for refusing to isolate or get treated for tuberculosis (TB) has been caught flouting the rules — by getting on a public bus and hanging out at a casino.
The patient from Tacoma, Washington state has refused to isolate or take medication since being diagnosed with the contagious bacterial infection over a year ago
The woman, who has been deemed a public safety risk by a judge and will be quarantined and medicated against her will, was spotted by an officer watching her house getting dropped off at a casino last month.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, TB is the leading infectious disease killer in the world, killing 1.5 million lives annually. However, the vast majority of cases can be easily treated with medicine.
Laws allowing the courts to order a person to stay home or isolate from others after they are deemed a public health risk are on the books in 38 US states, including the three of the most populous in California, Texas and New York (red)
Deaths from tuberculosis dropped significantly over the past three decades. They have fallen from around 1,800 in 1993 to around 600 in 2020, the CDC reports
A warrant was issued for her arrest and involuntary detention at the Pierce County Jail on March 2.
According to an April 3 court filing seen by The Tacoma News Tribune, Chief of Corrections Patricia Jackson said she had: ‘directed an officer to surveil the respondent to determine her habits in order to execute the warrant in a safe manner.’
The filing stated the officer ‘observed a person they believed to be respondent leave her residence, get onto a city bus, and arrive at a local casino.’
If caught, she will face detention in Pierce County Jail.
It added that in the days after, ‘the officer continued surveillance only to find respondent was not home.’
The woman was diagnosed with TB in January 2022, after reportedly being a passenger in a car crash and going to an emergency room with chest pains.
X-rays showed progressing TB. She had also tested positive for Covid.
She was given her first order to isolate in mid-January and more than 20 orders since, until the order of contempt and arrest warrant last month.
The March order called for her to be detained in the Pierce County Jail to undergo testing and treatment for TB, until medical tests show ‘she no longer presents a threat to the public health, safety, and welfare’.
Tuberculosis is an airborne disease that usually affects the lungs and spreads through prolonged exposure to others.
BCG vaccination gives up to 80 percent protection in babies and young children, but the shot is less effective against TB in the lungs in adults.
The BCG vaccine is not used widely in America and does not prevent infection.
Symptoms depend on where in the body the TB bacteria are growing but include chest pain, no appetite, chills and fever.
It is spread when someone infected with TB of the lungs coughs, speaks or sings, but you would have to spend several hours in close contact to catch it.
The TB mortality rate was 0.2 deaths per 100,000 persons in 2020, 13 percent higher than the rate in 2019.
Treatment includes a three to nine-month course of the antibiotics isoniazid and rifampicin. Depending on the type and severity of the infection, the drugs can be used anywhere from daily to weekly.
Documents filed early in the case’s history stated that the woman began, but did not complete, prescribed treatment for tuberculosis.
Officials fear that the woman’s refusal to isolate puts the rest of the community at risk.
In the latest hearing on April 5, Nigel Turner, division director of Communicable Disease Control for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, said that the case would be ‘referred to the Pierce County sheriff to arrange for detention of the individual’.
The next court hearing is scheduled for May 19.
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