Countywide : TB Isolation Cells in County Jail Planned

In a move to prevent the outbreak of tuberculosis among Orange County Jail inmates, officials are planning to modify six cells to isolate victims of the highly contagious disease.

Dr. Hugh F. Stallworth, the county’s health officer, said the precautions at the jail are a reflection of the disease’s dramatic growth in Orange County during the past three years, in which tuberculosis cases have increased 41%. There were 431 cases last year.

“What’s happening in Orange County is no different than what’s happening in the rest of the state and nation,” Stallworth said. “The jail population is a reflection of society.”

The plan to be considered by the County Board of Supervisors today would modify four cells in the medical department of the Intake / Release Center and two in the Women’s Jail to isolate infected inmates.

The cells would have separate ventilation systems that would circulate potentially contaminated air directly outside.

Although there are no active cases in the jail population, there were six last year and three so far this year. In those cases, inmates were quarantined at Western Medical Center in Anaheim. With the newly modified cells, officials said inmates can be isolated more quickly and treated more cheaply than by housing them in a local hospital.

“In jails, where the setting is fairly crowded and there is already a high-risk population for disease, it could spread more quickly,” Stallworth said.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that is spread by airborne droplets from coughing or sneezing, Stallworth said. Generally, the disease is spread after prolonged contact with an infected person. Symptoms of the disease are coughing, fever, night sweats, weight loss and the coughing of blood. Left untreated, the disease can be debilitating.

Infected inmates would be isolated for at least two to three weeks while undergoing treatment, Stallworth said.