Police have been sent to arrest a Washington state woman with an active case of tuberculosis who, for more than a year, has repeatedly refused to isolate or receive treatment for the infectious disease, health officials said Friday.
The woman, whose name the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department declined to release but who was identified in court documents by the initials VN, had many opportunities to self-isolate or seek treatment.
Judge Philip Sorensen signed the arrest warrant «as a last resort» Thursday after health officials appealed to him for the 16th time on February 24 for the woman to comply with his order to go back on her medication or self-isolate. voluntarily.
“Respondent’s objections to the February 24, 2023 order are noted, preserved, and are insufficient to modify the court’s order,” Sorensen wrote. «The Pierce County Jail shall be authorized to transport VN to an appropriate designated facility within Pierce County, including, but not limited to, Department of Corrections facilities.»
Sorensen did not explain in his order why VN refused to comply. But he warned the arresting officers that they would be transporting «a patient with active tuberculosis» and that they would take «appropriate precautions.»
The women’s court-appointed attorney, Sarah Tofflemire, suggested in a filing Wednesday, which was obtained by The Tacoma News Tribune newspaper, that part of the reason the woman has been refusing treatment is because she doesn’t understand what is happening. And Tofflemire asked that a guardian be appointed to help her.
“She has not acknowledged the existence of her own medical condition,” Tofflemire said, noting that when she participated in the court proceedings “she has spoken out of character with rapid and disorganized speech.”
“Mostly it has been focused on how you dislike the documents coming into your house, and not on the importance of the process you are in,” Tofflemire said. «She has repeatedly threatened to commit suicide in connection with the documents being delivered to her home.»
NBC News reached out to Tofflemire for comment, but she did not respond.
Local health officials said a court-certified interpreter has been present at every court hearing and that Tofflemire, from the time she was appointed the woman’s attorney in March 2022, has had numerous opportunities to request a guardian.
Kenny Via, a spokesman for the health department, said in a statement that the woman will be taken «to a facility equipped for isolation, testing and treatment.»
«We will continue to work through the court and pursue all of our options to protect the community and persuade the patient to voluntarily seek the life-saving treatment she needs,» Via said.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has declined to provide information on why the woman has flatly refused treatment. but low washington state lawPublic health officials have the legal authority to seek a court order when a person’s refusal to take medication poses a threat to the public.
Tuberculosis can be deadly if left untreated, and infected people risk spreading the disease to others. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis is spread through the air when a person with an active case coughs, sneezes, or talks.
Tuberculosis treatment usually takes three to nine months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But patients who stop taking their drugs before finishing treatment can also develop resistance to antibiotics.
Earlier, Nigel Turner, director of the county health department’s Communicable Disease Control division, said the department had to resort to legal action only three times in the past 20 years to get tuberculosis patients to comply with orders treatment.
VN landed on the health department radar around January 2022 after she showed up in an emergency room after a car accident and X-rays of her chest revealed she had tuberculosis and the disease was progressing.
The woman also tested positive for covid-19, «which also strongly suggests that she is not isolating as ordered by this court,» the official said. News-Tribune reported.
Once a global scourge which killed millions of people, tuberculosis has steadily declined since 1992 in the United States, According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States Recorded about 7,900 active cases in 2021, the agency reported. And TB vaccines are no longer widely given in the US because the disease isn’t as common and the shots aren’t very effective in adults.