Brunswick County jail officials are testing all inmates and jail workers for tuberculosis after two inmates contracted the disease.
The TB cases first came to officials’ attention late last week when a former inmate was being tested for TB at his new job. When it turned out to be positive, health officials tracked the disease back to his cellmate.
Officials are not releasing the names of those infected because of medical privacy laws.
The inmate tested positive and has been transferred to Central Prison in Raleigh on a safekeeping order, Brunswick County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Charlie Miller said.
The former inmate has been quarantined in his home in Brunswick County and is being treated for the disease, county Health Director Don Yousey said.
The testing of more than 400 inmates and workers was to be completed Wednesday, and results were expected by Friday, Yousey said.
“We want to nip this in the bud so it doesn’t spread,” he said.
Just how serious this is will depend on the test results and whether anyone else has the active form of the disease. Some people who get TB never get sick because their immune systems can fight it. They can be treated with one drug and cannot spread the disease.
The active form, however, is spread by people breathing in bacteria released by coughing and sneezing.
“I’d love to have them all come back negative. That’s probably not going to happen,” Yousey said, noting even if he were to test 400 people throughout the county, some would probably come back positive.
If there are no active cases, those who test positive can be treated and it will be the end of the case. But if some are active, whoever they came in contact with will need to be tested, Yousey said.
The incident is cause for concern for county officials.
“What if there were others? That’s the kind of thing that scares me,” County Attorney Huey Marshall said. He also said he was concerned about workers who leave the complex or inmates who are discharged and might be able to spread it.
Testing for TB
Unlike in prisons, it’s not required by law for jails to test for TB, Yousey said.
Brunswick County contracts its health care service in the jail to Southern Health Partners, which does not test everyone for TB, said Jodi Harrison, risk manager for the company.
But everyone is screened. They are asked whether they have a past history of TB, whether they lost 20 pounds in the past six months without trying, if they have had persistent night sweats and whether they have a nonproductive cough or are coughing up blood.
If the answer to any question is yes, then they are tested.
If they have a past history, X-rays are conducted.
Yousey said he has suggested the sheriff’s office start testing incoming inmates for TB.
He said he plans to sit down with sheriff’s office and health officials on Monday to talk about where they go from here.
Miller said they will talk about how to prevent this from happening in the future.
“We’re really going to try and learn from this,” he said.