May 30, 2007
News that an Atlanta man has been globetrotting with an infectious disease and is now in quarantine sounds like really old news, and had us asking a million questions in our morning meeting... questions best answered by a doctor, a laywer, and an ethicist (sounds like the setup for a walk-into-a-bar joke). What do you want to know about the case?
The guy with TB is a selfish jerk.
What ever happened to 'bird flu'? I thought we were all supposed to be dead from 'bird flu'already.
Reminds me of the 'killer bees' circa '76; they never seem to have arrived here either.
As a Type 1 diabetic, I can tell you that anyone living with a suppressed or dysfunctional immune system, the idea of being trapped on an airplane with an infected individual is something from our worst nightmares.
Call me selfish, but since it will be those with chronic illnesses that will suffer the most if this situation is repeated and a outbreak or epidemic occurs, this man should be legally held accountable to the fullest extent of the law if only to prevent this from happening again.
25-30 years ago there was a groundbreaking event that changed the legality and politics of quarrantines. The Gay community in San Francisco successfully fought against quarrantines and kept the bath houses open and people with AIDS to go free about society. This guy in GA did not initially know how serious his condition was and once he found out I fail to see how the laws could be used against him after what happened with AIDS. On the other hand, if I were concerned I would sue him in civil court for any medical expenses and possibly compensation for the stress. Regretfully, in our zeal to accept homosexuals into our society we have hamstrung parts of the public health system.
I wonder is his wife infected? She would be the most likely to be and if not is there a chance others could be who would not have been any where as close as she has?
I bet someone received a kiss at the wedding. How many people received an unexpected gift?
My initial comment would be that since I work in the health-care industry, I am required to be TB-free. In fact, I have to undergo yearly tests to prove it. Who knows where the potentially-infected people worked. They could have already come back to a health-care situation and caused problems.
My second concern would be that I have a son who will be traveling to Germany in July. Are there any special precautions to take? I'm not trying to be over-cautious here, just reasonable.
are you forgetting that only a few weeks ago NPR carried a story on a man being held in custody in Arizona over exactly the same thing? here is the website for that story. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9284375
There's a 27-year-old man named Robert Daniels currently being held indefinitely in solitary confinement for this sort of TB in Arizona - in that case, it is a state, not federal, mandate. The conditions of his confinement are bizarrely punitive. For some reason they took away his phone, TV and computer and they leave his light on 24 hours a day/keep him under 24-hour surveillance. I can see sequestering someone who willfully disrespects the requirements of public safety, but I have a hard time believing the punitive conditions are legal or appropriate. Seems reprehensible. I wonder about the conditions of this federal confinement?
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