Countywide : Woman Jail Inmate Found to Have TB

County health officials confirmed Monday that a young female inmate at the James A. Musick Branch Jail in Irvine has contracted tuberculosis and has been hospitalized in an isolation ward at Western Medical Center-Anaheim.

The woman’s case was detected by routine testing Friday, which prompted health officials to administer skin tests to about 70 women housed at the Musick Jail Saturday and Sunday. Results of those tests are pending.

The woman, whose identity was not revealed, is the fifth case of TB in the county jail system this year. Although officials said the latest case doesn’t represent a widespread outbreak of TB, in recent years the disease has been on the upswing in county jail facilities, as it has in the nation.

“We have had an increase in TB cases over the last several years,” said David Riley, division manager for the county’s Health Care Agency, which is in charge of medical treatment at county jails. “It’s an issue of concern that we’ve had quite a while now because it’s an increasing national trend.”

Tuberculosis cases have increased at the county’s jails from one in 1986 to five or six in recent years. But 13 cases were reported last year.

“We did have a real significant jump,” Riley said.

However, no jail deaths from TB have been reported. The cases have involved only inmates and not sheriff’s deputies or other jail personnel, health officials said.

Tuberculosis is a lung disease transmitted by bacteria contained in phlegm that is coughed into the air, then breathed in.

Because of effective antibiotics and widespread testing, TB seemed on the road to extinction nationwide less than a decade ago. But increased immigration from countries with high TB rates, growing homelessness and the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus have contributed to a resurgence.

Public health officials have taken steps to handle the problem in Orange County jails. Testing and education of jail staff have been increased, X-ray facilities have been moved to the jails and the isolation unit has been moved from the jails to Western Medical Center, Riley said.

The young woman found to have TB last Friday was transferred to a three-bed isolation ward for jail tuberculosis patients at Western Medical Center.

“We just picked her up on our usual screening for all people who come to the jail,” said Dr. Ernest Williams, jail medical director.

Fourteen days after being admitted to any of the county’s jail facilities, an inmate is given a skin test for TB, then a chest X-ray if the test is positive. Confirmed cases are then treated by county health officials.

A positive test result may only mean that a person has been infected by the virus but is not necessarily clinically ill or contagious, Williams said.

About 11% of the more than 6,000 inmates tested in recent months were found to have positive skin tests, but only five of those were diagnosed to have contagious TB.

“Just because it’s in the air doesn’t mean you are going to get it,” Williams said.

Nevertheless, skin tests were administered at Musick to determine whether the woman hospitalized over the weekend had spread the germ to other inmates.

“We are concerned with people who slept in her area,” Williams said.