Health district orders home stay for patient

TB patient required to remain at home until symptoms subside

MOSES LAKE — A show cause hearing was filed in Grant County Superior Court by the Grant County Health District earlier this month, after a county resident with tuberculosis failed to stay confined to their place of residence until symptoms subsided.

The resident is being required by court order to stay at home until lab tests confirm the individual is no longer infectious.

Violation of the order will result in being subject to arrest and taken to jail.

The individual, a former employee of the J.R. Simplot Company in Othello, was reported to have TB in August.

Both Grant and Adams county health officials responded to the case in August and those employees thought to have had prolonged exposure to the infected individual were contacted by health district staff.

TB is a bacterial disease spread from person to person through the air, such as when someone sneezes or coughs. It usually affects the lungs, but can also affect lymph nodes, kidneys, bones, joints and other parts of the body.

Symptoms include fever, night sweats, fatigue, weight loss and a persistent cough which can take two to three months and in some cases years after infection until TB becomes active.

Anyone can contract TB, with those at highest risk for contraction being those with weakened immune systems, the elderly, persons at 10 percent or more below ideal body weight and those with other medical risks such as: Diabetes mellitus, prolonged corticosteroid therapy, immunosuppressive therapy, cancer and silicosis.

To date, the GCHD has had three confirmed TB cases for 2005. There is a fourth suspected TB case pending in an individual outside of the county that has not been confirmed.

The GCHD has investigated around 300 latent cases of TB, meaning the individuals are carriers of the TB bacteria.

Every year there is an increase of between 50 to 60 which demonstrates TB continues to be a significant presence in the county, said GCHD health officer Alexander Brzezny.

Brzezny attributes the high numbers of TB to the movement of new residents into the county from other states and countries with a high TB risk.

Due to additional costs not budgeted in the health district budget to investigate the number of TB reports they have received, GCHD officials filed a request with the county three weeks ago for more funds. The county agreed to provide $23,552 to pay for the costs of TB investigations.

It is for situations like the TB outbreaks that health district officials want to get the message across that funding for public health is needed, especially in Grant County.

Funding of public health in this county is one of the lowest in the state, Brzezny said. "Public health affects us all and it requires partnerships across the line."

Brzezny will be making presentations to municipalities throughout the county in coming weeks, asking them to consider donating $1 per person to help fund public health.