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| Prisoner with TB spreads disease |
| By The Kansas City Star |
| Published: 08/30/2004 |
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He had a bad cough and spit up blood, but for months he went through three Kansas jails and a state prison without anyone realizing he had tuberculosis. Now federal health officials say the unidentified 36-year-old man may have exposed as many as 800 persons to the risk of tuberculosis infection from October 2001 through September 2002. He probably gave the disease to two cellmates and may have been responsible for infecting as many as 47 other inmates, prison and jail employees, and members of his household. All these infected people whom health investigators could find have been treated with antibiotics. "It's really important for correctional facilities to have infection-control programs to protect their employees and inmates ... but there's a long way to go to have adequate controls to protect against tuberculosis," said Renee Funk, a public health specialist who investigated the Kansas inmate case for the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The account of the infected patient appears in the current issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. To maintain the inmate's privacy, the CDC did not disclose which correctional facilities were involved. Kansas officials say the case has led to more conscientious evaluations of inmates for TB symptoms at state prisons. But many county jails still lack adequate procedures, they say. "There is a real challenge still facing us there," said Phil Griffin, tuberculosis control director of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Jails in Johnson and Wyandotte counties appear to be doing an effective job screening inmates, Griffin said. |
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