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| TB Tests Planned for Jail Jail at Raymond |
| By clarionledger.com |
| Published: 06/18/2009 |
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TB Tests Planned for Jail at Raymond Employees Will Undergo Scrutiny by Health Authorities Kathleen Baydala State health officials are conducting follow-up tests on 25 Hinds County inmates after two cases of the infectious lung disease tuberculosis were found at the Raymond jail this spring. Advertisement The Mississippi State Department of Health in May tested 800 inmates at the detention center and penal farm who came in contact with the two inmates at the Hinds County Detention Center. No new active cases of the disease were found, but 25 inmates returned positive skin tests, which means they carry the bacteria. "The are being evaluated and will get chest X-rays," state epidemiologist Dr. Mary Currier said. Latent tuberculosis can become active if a person's immune system weakens. "That's the reason we give medicine to folks with latent TB, to make sure they don't get active TB," Currier said. "The medication lasts nine months." The MSDH will begin testing jail and penal farm employees "in the next couple of weeks," she said. State health officials are not seeking to test visitors because brief contact usually does not result in the transmission of the disease. The department also is educating jail staff to recognize tuberculosis symptoms so that inmates with symptoms can be properly isolated and tested. The disease is a concern for jails and other places where people are in close contact because it can spread when the bacteria becomes airborne, such as a through a cough or sneeze. "With any correctional institution of this size that has thousands of people who come and go, we are going to have this disease," Chief Deputy Steve Pickett said. "The fact that someone may be ill and committed a crime, we can't just turn them loose."Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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