Thread: GA: Putnam Sheriff Quarantines Illegal Immigrant with TB

Putnam Sheriff Quarantines Illegal Immigrant with TB, One Infected Man Still Missing
Submitted by Courtney Ferrell on Thu, 08/09/2007 - 11:05am. News
The Putnam County Sheriff's Department is holding a Guatemalan man for failing to take medication for his tuberculosis.

The Health Department treated a number of people in one East Eatonton home for TB, but a few of the people had stopped taking their treatments. The Health Department received an order from the Putnam County Superior Court to have the Sheriff's Office detain the individuals to avert a county-wide health risk.

Deputies and Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) detained eleven illegal immigrants in the house. Deputies escorted Jamie Romero, a Guatemalan citizen, and have housed him in a trailer on Putnam County Jail property. The remaining ten people were taken into custody, and are currently in a detention center in Stewart County awaiting deportation.

Romero is being treated by the Health Department at the Putnam County Jail. Sheriff Howard Simms says Romero is not in handcuffs, and has not been arrested. Jail staff are wearing masks to avoid TB contamination. Sills says Romero is not infected with a drug-resistant strain of TB.

An additional man who did not complete his treatment with the Health Department is missing.

http://www.wmgt.com/node/3790

Isn't this just peachy.

An additional man who did not complete his treatment with the Health Department is missing.

Now there's a surprise.

And these are the people working in our poultry and other food plants.

I contracted Typhoid Fever 3 yrs. ago and no I was not out of the country at all.The only way you can get it in our country is from a carrier.

Think of this.

Our children are cooped up in schoolrooms with children who might be carriers. Think about warm, closed up classrooms and 30 kids breathing that same air. Unless it is traced back, they would probably just think some child had a cold or allergy when coughing.

Are we ready to take on the poultry industry yet?

You know this is not an isolated thing?

This was from a couple of days ago.... Last school year at my kids school they tested a 100+ kids for TB...


High schoolers tested for TB

By Ashley Hungerford
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer

KENNESAW - About 100 students at Cobb's Kennesaw Mountain High School have been tested for tuberculosis after school officials learned that a rising sophomore student tested positive for the disease, district spokesman Jay Dillon said Monday.

Cobb & Douglas Board of Health spokeswoman Sheena Haynes said none of the students tested positive for exposure to tuberculosis.

Dillon said after the Board of Health notified the school in July, parents of children who had classes with the infected student or rode the same bus received a letter asking them to come in for testing.

"As a precaution, we sent out letters to parents of all students in the child's class," Dillon said.

On Friday, Dillon said 65 students were tested for tuberculosis, and 10 to 20 students went to the health department for testing.

"This was normal procedure," Dillon said. "We worked closely with the health department."

Kennesaw Mountain Principal Dr. Kevin Daniel said the process of notifying and testing students "worked very well."

"As soon as they notified us, we immediately started pulling the information," Daniel said. "We wanted to address it quickly. Safety is a top priority."

Daniels said the Board of Health directed them to compile a list of students who had "confined, extended contact" with the infected student, like having the same class or riding the same bus.

"We wanted to react quickly for anyone we knew who had that exposure," Daniel said. "As soon as we knew, we wanted to very quickly address it."

Dillon said the Board of Health sponsored a parent meeting on Thursday at Kennesaw Mountain High School for parents of at-risk students. Parents were given information about the disease and testing procedures students would complete.

While none of the Kennesaw Mountain students had positive tests, Dillon said a positive test result doesn't mean a student has contracted the disease. More tests are needed, like a chest X-ray, to confirm if a student has an active tuberculosis case.

"A positive test doesn't indicate a student has TB," Dillon said. "It does mean they've been exposed (to tuberculosis)."

School Board Chairman Lindsey Tippins said he received an e-mail notifying him that testing had taken place.

For parents who are concerned their student had close contact with the infected student, Daniel said they should contact the Cobb Board of Health.

But Ms. Haynes said if a student didn't receive a letter, their parents shouldn't worry.

"There should be no concern," she said. "Only students who had been potentially exposed to this active tuberculosis case were notified."

Dillon said the school system reacted as it's supposed to when the Board of Health notifies it of a health risk. He said Cobb Schools usually has one or two cases of tuberculosis each school year.

The last incident he could remember was at Wheeler High School where none of the more than 200 students tested contracted tuberculosis.

In 2005, more than 100 students were tested at Osborne High School after the school system was notified of an active case of tuberculosis at the school.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, bacteria that usually attack the lungs cause tuberculosis and it spreads through the air when a person with TB coughs, sneezes, speaks or sneezes.

ahungerford@mdjonline.com


http://www.mdjonline.com/articles/2007/ ... 268517.txt