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| Science & Technology |
| Man with 'extreme' TB may be jailed in Phoenix ward until death |
| 2007-03-02 |
| A man infected with an especially virulent strain of tuberculosis has spent eight months in a hospital jail ward under a court order and may be held until he dies. Robert Daniels has not been charged with a crime, but the 27-year-old violated the rules of a voluntary quarantine, exposing others to a potentially deadly illness. Maricopa County public health officials got a court order to keep him locked up. The TB strain Daniels has is so dangerous that he has never met his appointed lawyer, Robert Blecher, who describes the situation as "extremely unusual." Daniels' hospital room is designed so that air flows in, never out, to prevent the bacterium from spreading. Daniels, who has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Russia, contracted "extreme multidrug resistant tuberculosis" while living in Russia, court records show. He was diagnosed two years ago in Russia, and said he came to Phoenix in January 2006 after being told drugs were hard to get and expensive. Daniels went to a Phoenix hospital with respiratory problems in July 2006, and was sent to a Phoenix halfway house for indigent TB patients under a voluntary quarantine. He was ordered to continue treatment and wear a mask when he went out in public because the disease is spread by airborne contact. Daniels stopped taking his medication and went unmasked to a restaurant, a convenience market and other stores, court records stated. Robert England, Maricopa County's tuberculosis control officer, said in court filings that Daniels understands the rules, but "merely refuses to follow them." England applied for and received a "compulsory detention" order for Daniels, a legal tool used about once a year in Arizona. Daniels, who has a wife and child in Russia, said in a telephone interview with The Arizona Republic that he didn't want to confuse people by wearing a mask and that doctors at Russian clinics where he was treated didn't even wear masks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported there were 14,097 cases of TB in the United States last year. Just 15 were of the rare strain Daniels has. Prospects for his release are unclear. A 2006 medical assessment indicated the disease was mutating in Daniels. Few people realize that when push comes to shove, the Health Department in any country can be by far the most authoritarian branch of government. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
#8 doctors at Russian clinics where he was treated didn't even wear masksWell, duh. |
| Posted by: JSU 2007-03-02 13:42 |
| #7 I've no idea if I'm among that 10% of the population that can get Hansen's disease. And not having a reference with me when I saw the man, why rely on memory? I suppose it's like smelling gangrene. You may not know what it is, but you know that it is bad. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-03-02 12:32 |
| #6 Bigger risk of starving to death in Sheriff Joe's tent resort. |
| Posted by: Phineter Thraviger 2007-03-02 12:14 |
| #5 Leprosy is an extremely hard disease to get. It takes intimate contact with a sufferer for a very long time. The Biblical descriptions are much overstated. You weren't in any danger, Anonymoose. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2007-03-02 11:46 |
| #4 Lock him up until there is no trace of TB or until he expires. MDR TB costs $250,000 per patient to treat and 1/4 fatality rate. Extreme DR TB is much worse: Doctor who discovered killer TB strain in South Africa says it's probably widespread A particularly drug-resistant tuberculosis discovered in eastern South Africa is likely to have spread beyond the rural area where 52 of the 53 people first diagnosed with the new strain have died, Of course, being South Africa, a good percentage of the TB patients have HIV, but still a 98% death rate. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-03-02 10:13 |
| #3 http://tinyurl.com/2sw5kh New York City did this in 1993. BTW, I actually saw a leper (right up from Mexico) in a convenience store in Phoenix in the mid-'80's. Once the light dawned, I moonwalked. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-03-02 09:56 |
| #2 Daniels stopped taking his medication and went unmasked to a restaurant, a convenience market and other stores, court records stated. Hang him then go round to his place and paint a white X on the front door. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-03-02 09:38 |
| #1 Moose - Amen to THAT. And there is plenty of legal precedent for it. Anyone remember this nice lady?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid_Mary Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2007-03-02 09:30 |