Replies

Man Isolated with Deadly Tuberculosis Strain\
NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.phpstoryId=9284375

Day to Day, April 2, 2007 · Robert Daniels is being held in a detention ward at an Arizona hospital because he is infected with a deadly strain of tuberculosis. Daniels refused to comply with voluntary quarantine rules.

Rene Gutel of member station KJZZ reports, and Dr. Ross Upshur, head of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, argues that isolation is the only way to contain dangerous types of TB.

elsewhere:

...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 ventilation system draws out the air and filters it to capture the bacteria-laden droplets he expels when he coughs. The filters are periodically burned. Daniels said he is taking medication and feeling a lot better. His lawyer would not discuss his prognosis. Daniels plans to ask for his release at a court hearing late this month.....Daniels lived in Russia for 15 years and returned to the United States last year after he was diagnosed. He said he thought he would get better treatment here, and hoped eventually to bring his wife and children from Russia. He said he briefly worked in an office in Arizona for a chemical company before he was put away. He said that he lost 50 pounds and was constantly coughing and that authorities locked him up after they discovered he had walked into a convenience store without a mask....the county would not force someone into quarantine unless the patient could not or would not follow doctor’s orders.
“It’s very uncommon that someone would both not want to take treatment and will willingly put others at risk,” England said. “It’s only those very uncommon incidents where we have to use legal authority through the courts to isolate somebody.”