There’s an interesting article about a guy incarcerated (in truth, although he hasn’t been charged) because he broke his agreement to take his antibiotics and wear a mask in public.
He didn’t, so they basically put him in a hole in Arizona until he either dies or his body clears the infection.
Now, I’m not a fan of stomping people’s rights, but the treatment he’s undergoing seems appropriate for the most part. Not being allowed a shower, TV, or computer seems overkill — but locking him up because he was posing a threat to all the people he was coughing around at the Circle K sounds like a good idea to this nursing student. This behavior is a big no-no according to the CDC guidelines for travelers.
The guy claims he was never told the extent of his illness, or not following the prescribed treatment. I find this difficult to believe. I know in the real world not every single thing is always communicated to a patient in terms of side effects, possible complications, or interactions. But I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that since he was sporting a case of extremely resistant TB, sticking to his antibiotics came up on a couple of occasions. Also, the wearing of the mask looking like a robber? How many robbers go around with a surgical mask on? Even accounting for his dual-citizenship and possible cultural bias, it’s a hard sell that he didn’t “get it”.
I’m thinking he deserves to be kept behind doors for so cavalierly risking everyone around him. What if it had been Ebola instead of TB? I’m okay with losing some civil liberties when images of Typhoid Mary keep popping into my head.
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 7, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Change of Shift: Volume One, Number Nineteen // Emergiblog
[...] nurse Markie presents a public health care dilemma in Free to be TB? posted at Mark On The World. How would you handle this [...]
March 8, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Judy
Did you know that Typhoid Mary was incarcerated for precisely the same reasons as this man. OK, it was Typhoid and not TB, but she too declined to protect those around her.
March 8, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Markie
Judy,
That was my thinking too. She refused to believe she was a threat, and ignored the facts.
March 12, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Sian
The only thing that makes me uncomfortable is the fact they are holding him indefinately without any sort of due process. I don’t see why they can’t charge him with (willful?) endangerment or, if there is any evidence that he has transmitted his strain of TB to someone, with actual bodily harm or attempted murder. Then it would go to court and the evidence could be weighed up as to whether or not he had understood the terms of his quarantine/gravity of his illness. If he was found not guilty he could be released and if he screwed up again, even once, on his quarantine conditions (which would be court-ordered this time, as opposed to voluntary which they were originally), it would be well beyond reasonable doubt that he should be confined.
I’m all for stopping the spread of disease but I think I feel worse about legal detention without trial!
March 12, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Markie
Sian,
Good points.
I guess my feeling is that if we have to possibly expose people just to give this guy one more try, I’m not comfortable with that. I just can’t buy the story that he didn’t “get it”. It sounds like the only thing keeping him from continuing to do whatever he wants is the fact that he *can’t*.