Authorities Criminally Charge Tuberculosis Patient for Not Taking Meds
- Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:25pm by
Liz Klimas
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Armando Rodriguez was arrested for not taking his medication for infectious tuberculosis. (Photo: AP/San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office)
SAN FRANCISCO (The Blaze/AP) — It’s a difficult legal situation. A person has an infectious disease. Taking medication is not only beneficial to them, but it can help stop the spread of said disease. When it’s found the patient is not taking these medications, the authorities arrest them and institute a measure that will ensure the patient is at a certain place where administration of the medication can be monitored.
This exact situation is what has happened with Armando Rodriguez who has tuberculosis, but some public health officials think the authorities went too far.
Rodriguez was warned several times to continue taking his tuberculosis medicine. At one point, authorities said, he told his case officer he stopped the treatment out of concern for his liver while binging on alcohol and methamphetamine.
On Tuesday, authorities arresting Rodriguez and charged him with refusing to comply with a tuberculosis order to be at home at certain times and make appointments to take his medication.
It’s a move that divides public health officials.
“I think it’s an error to confine someone in the criminal justice system for a public health crime,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University public health law professor who drafted a model law adopted by several states struggling with the issue. “The whole intention is to protect the public’s health. It’s not to lay blame on someone.”
Health officials say Rodriguez, 34, of Stockton has active pulmonary tuberculosis, which can include coughing up blood or phlegm and can spread through the air.
Rodriguez has been noncompliant with his treatment and could become contagious as a result, Ginger Wick, nursing director for San Joaquin County, said in a letter requesting a warrant for Rodriguez’s arrest.
After failing one time to give himself the drugs, Rodriguez told a nurse he had gone on an alcohol binge and taken methamphetamine and didn’t want to hurt his liver, Wick said in her letter.
Rodriguez was arrested Tuesday and is expected to be arraigned Thursday on two misdemeanor counts. Each charge against Rodriguez carries a maximum penalty of a year behind bars.
He will likely be appointed a public defender.
Scanning electron micrograph of the tuberculosis bacterium. (Image; Wikimedia)
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs. Many people have a latent form, and the active form usually only affects adults whose immune systems are compromised, which can happen from drug use.
Public health experts are divided on the issue of mandatory treatment and criminal charges for patients who don’t comply with treatment orders.
Many of those who do support criminal prosecution in the rarest of cases when public health is in jeopardy oppose the jailing of patients.
Implementing mandatory treatment should be a last resort, and prosecuting someone for disobeying a public health order is unhelpful and sends the wrong message if protecting public health is the intent, Georgetown’s Gostin said.
Instead, the afflicted should be given assistance such as transportation to and from treatments rather than punishment as an incentive to take their medicine, he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said laws to control the spread of tuberculosis have been in use for more than a century, though regulations differ in each state. Here‘s an excerpt from the CDC’s TB Policy Handbook:
In other cases, however, it may be necessary for government to significantly restrict individual liberty to protect the public’s health. Under one state’s law, for example, a TB patient may be required to undergo outpatient examination and treatment, DOT, hospitalization, or residential isolation to prevent the spread of the disease. When public health authorities seek to use powers that restrict individual freedoms, fundamental rights of due process, travel, or association may be implicated. In such cases, courts may seek to determine whether government’s action advances a compelling state interest that is narrowly tailored, and there are other less restrictive alternatives available to protect the public’s health and the individual. Generally, liberty principles allow individuals (or their legal guardians) to decide whether to treat an illness, regardless of its severity, consistent with traditional notions of informed consent. The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized a right to bodily integrity that includes a right to refuse medical treatment, except in limited cases (e.g., treatment of prisoners with infectious diseases).
As many as 12,000 new cases of tuberculosis are reported in the country each year, the CDC reported. California recorded 2,317 new cases in 2011, a low since records have been kept.
Nonetheless, officials throughout the nation continue to struggle to stop the spread of tuberculosis, with several drug-resistant strains emerging in recent years.
Federal and state officials don’t keep records of the number of people prosecuted for refusing to take their medicines. But some say it’s exceedingly rare to file criminal charges in such cases.
San Joaquin County has had more than 30 tuberculosis prosecutions since 1984, prosecutor Stephen Taylor said, noting the county is more aggressive than other jurisdictions in prosecuting patients to get them to take their medication.
“The criminal cases we’re dealing with generally involve drug users who are harder to treat and manage because the TB medicines conflict with street drugs,” he said. “We have to throw these people in jail and treat them as in-patients. They don’t cooperate as out-patients.”
Karen Furst, San Joaquin County public health officer, said the county arranges transportation and other services to help patients stick to their drug regimen and turns to the legal system only as a last resort.
“I have to make sure that if I’m aware that somebody is in a position that could possibly be spreading a disease to another person, that I take steps that are necessary to prevent that from happening,” she said.
Rodriguez was discharged in March from San Joaquin General Hospital with four medications for active tuberculosis and agreed to take the drugs under observation by a county health official on weekdays and on his own on weekends, authorities said.
He allegedly refused to take the drugs on another day and then was not at home on three occasions and missed an appointment.
In her letter, Wick said Rodriguez would need nine months of treatment.
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Comments (51)
inferno
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 6:21pmDoes anyone this would happen to an AIDS patient ?
Report Post »Not on your life. However both AIDS and this man’s illness are communicable diseases.
rickc34
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 7:52pmDo not eat out these are the people serving your food . Home school your children they learn more and their risk of catching something is way less. Unions and. Aclu protect them but not you. And unions are the reason california is 16 billion in the hole.
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 11:26pm16 billion? That‘s not even a day’s deficit spending on the national level! Anyway, I’ve got a better idea than stay at home all the time or putting this guy in prison. How about the city or county health department just pay the guy to stay at home with an ankle monitor for the duration of his recovery and send out a nurse to ensure treatment is administered? I‘m sure paying this guy who probably doesn’t make alot to stay at home and watch movies won’t take as much a criminal lawsuit with two attorneys paid for by the state along with the compensation for jurors, a judge, and administrative costs. And who would refuse to be paid to stay at home and get treated for a crippling illness that is curable? Just pay the guy and the problem is solved for him and the community and who knows, maybe wearing an ankle monitor and not being able to leave his home will clean his system of the drugs he was taking and allow him to be a fully functioning and tax-paying member of society again? P.S. All taxes are theft.
Report Post »minorityconservative2
Posted on May 18, 2012 at 12:23pmDo you think he is going to stay at home even with a monitor on him? I think not since what he is interested in is getting high/drunk. Should the tax payers also pay his drug pusher to come to his house and pay for the drugs so he doesn’t leave too? Yeah not going to work. A little thought please. If he is not willing to get off drugs to take a medicine to save his life then he is not willing to get off drugs because he is being monitored. Tuberculosis kills you and you don‘t live through it if you don’t take the meds.
Report Post »kindling
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 6:21pmI can’t stand it anymore! The left would run around and hold everyone’s hand and tell them what to do every moment of the day if we let them. This man has an illness that is a threat to everyone around him, all though I doubt they are very healthy anyway. This is why we used to do health checks before people came into this country. I bet he or someone he is with came across illegally and brought it into the country. This is what we get. Our kids are in school with sick kids that don’t even know they are sick and putting citizens at great risk. START SCREENING AND DEPORTING NOW!
Report Post »Auntie izlam
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:46pmYou have a communicable disease? Your bad luck, now take those drugs or go to jail & be made to take those drugs before you infect the innocent. You do not have the right to be a walking, talking infection putting everyone you contact at risk.
That goes for mental health issues too, it should not be your right to stop taking your drugs and leave the rest of us at risk. Vince Li, the male who beheaded and cannibalized his seat mate on a Greyhound bus comes to mind. There have been many brutal murders because people with mental illness have decided their right to not take the drugs was more important than the protection of innocents.
Report Post »jungle J
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:40pmput him out of our misery.
Report Post »Tom K
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:17pmIsolate the infected. Jail the irresponsible infected. The subject of this story is of the generation that did not learn what NO means: he is a selfish little snot that thinks the world revolves around him. Back in ancient history, the 1920′s – 1960′s, tuberculosis infected patients were isolated from the general public and cases became almost non-existant. Infectious diseases in America would dramatically decrease if our Government would just control our borders. Political Correctness can be deadly. Did the Pro-Obama Media report the leprosy cases in the Southwest U.S.A. ? Hell No !
Report Post »MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 3:52pmA little off topic but in Michigan it is a jailable offense to not take some Mental medications however the state will not provide the medications mandated, but will jail you and then provide the medications while you are jailed. WTH
Report Post »sasquatch08
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 3:34pmI felt sorry for the guy when I read the headline… but he’s not taking his meds so that he can drink and use meth… now I sorta feel like the authorities should lock him up, make him take his meds and get him off the meth.
Also, how many meth-heads are concerned about their liver?
Report Post »Tom K
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:19pm@ SASQUATCH08 : Armando is a selfish ******* !
Report Post »elosogrande
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 3:22pmHe has a serious disease, but if he doesn’t want to take any medications, that’s his choice. Let him die – no problem. Tuberculosis is a communicable disease, no one with TB should be allowed in public. If he insists on mingling with the public and possibly infecting others, he should be locked up.
TB was all but wiped out in America. Where did he contract the disease? Did he bring it back from a trip out of the country, or is he an alien who brought the disease with him to America? If it is the latter, he should be locked up until he can be returned to his country of origin. If he returns, we should bill his home country a billion or two for each “Pandora” allowed to cross the border.
We used to give medical exams to foreigners coming to America, and turn away people with communicable diseases, but that wasn’t politically correct. What have we let the PC idiots do to us? Are we all crazy?
Most illegal aliens come here to work, and they work very hard to make a living, but some people are chased out of their countries and come here carrying terrible diseases that were wiped out in America decades ago. We should demand that every alien found with a communicable disease be handcuffed to a member of Congress twenty-four hours a day for the rest of that Congressman’s life, and the Congressman can personally pick up the healthcare tab forever.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:03pmI was employed at a NYC hospital in the mid 1990′s when there was a small outbreak of TB throughout the city. As noted with TB virtually wiped out, most NYC hospitals had very few negative airflow and isolation rooms to treat these patients. What was interesting was that the TB patients utilized some of the protections afforded the HIV patients in terms of patients rights which weakened the desired medical and public health interventions. TB is a highly infectious disease and can spread very quickly through the general public. Despite advances the best approach is to isolate them and yes force them to take their meds as they are risk to others if they don‘t if they don’t die quickly.
Report Post »toto
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:10pmYou are brilliant and underutilized, please run for office.
Report Post »junior1971
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:55pmI cannot believe these poll results! Have you ever seen FDA approved drugs in commercials that state “Side effects may include death”? Have you ever seen the FDA approved anti-depressant drugs that state the drug may cause suicide? Do you know that the drug for TB is debated as to whether it is actually effective due to a large number of cases where the disease resists and becomes stronger, is unproven and your not supposed to drink because the drug puts such a severe strain on the liver because it is trying to remove the drug from the body!? You people actually trust the FDA!? You cannot smoke outside in maryland! Human flatulance is bad for the environment! You should all be forced not to fart!!!!
Report Post »WizzOzz
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:52pmI agree with previous posters about the question of his immigration status – and it did mention he was facing misdemeanor charges (probably due to the meth?)… Regardless, you know we have been paying for his treatment to date so why not provide housing (jail) and four squares as well?
Report Post »Dismayed Veteran
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:34pmI guess I suffer from historical memory. My best friend’s father had to go to a Colorado TB sanitarium in the mid-1950′s. My father-in-law went to Colorado in the late 1950′s. I can remember being told that it was against the law to spit because it TB was spread that way. I remember signs at swimming pools that warned against spitting.
Report Post »Stu D. Baker-Hawk
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:20pmIs this guy a citizen? Because if not, he needs to be DEPORTED toot-sweet. I’m sick and tired (and extremely angry) that these third-world diseases are making a come-back to our shores on the backs of filthy illegal aliens.
Report Post »WizzOzz
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:59pmIn regards to that – does anyone know if/when the Supreme Court will rule on SB1070?
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:12pmIf he’s going out in public and exposing others to potentially damaging and even lethal if not diagnosed and treated disease, then he is a public menace and a risk to the public health.
It would be the same if someone knowingly has AIDS and slept unprotected with others and spread the disease to them, its criminal. If you are sick, its something spreadable, you can treat it and you refuse to and then go out and expose others to your sickness, you are purposefully hurting others, sorry….. he goes to the TB unit and gets locked up….
Report Post »208hendrix2020
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 3:36pmok lets give you cancer and inform you that no matter your personal feeling on chemo and radiation therapy if you dont go you go to jail… neither of these procedueres (both endorsed as first line of treatment for cancer) is gauranteed to cure the cancer and in fact both treatment regimens could kill you at any moment? where do you draw the line at forceful treatment cause with me, i believe natural cures are better than modern medicine, for the treatment to be worse than the cure is meniakal and senseless.
Report Post »Stu D. Baker-Hawk
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:00pm@208Hendrix2020: Uh, do you even comprehend English? Your argument is fallacious at best. This idiot is being singled out because he has tuberculosis, which is EXTREMELY contagious and dangerous to the public at large. Cancer, on the other hand, is NOT. But you knew that, didn’t you. (Jeez, where do we get these ‘brain surgeons’?)
Report Post »toto
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:17pmThat’s fine Hendrix, if you lock yourself in a closet and don’t expose others to your disease. Exposing others to communicable diseases is not your right, that would be your selfishness.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:04pmThe way to control TB in this country is to control our southern border,
Report Post »inblack
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:15pmAmen to that. As the murderers say “Keep it safe, keep it legal”.
Look, if you threaten other people’s health by carelessly spreading disease, that is a crime, whether it is AIDS or tuberculosis.
The flu is different in that it is generally treatable and curable, but even then a charge of reckless endangerment could be appropriate.
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:19pmTB is a smoking disease, it is not a Hispanic one. Why to be a bigot. Many TB patients actually came to Colorado, as the air and cooler climate relieved their symptons and in some cases cured their disease.
If it is infectiious via the air and he refuses to take the medication, then yes he should be confined, quarantined. They did this back in the mid to late 1800, early 1900, so why not now. Whether it be jail or a hospital dedicated to TB, the public has a right to be protected. Remember that guy who flew on a jet from Colorado (I think) to France or maybe it vice versa. He was arrested.
In my book, this does not go way too far. It would be no different than someone with aids purposely having sex knowing they would be infecting others. This did happen and they were arrested.
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:01pmWe were pretty done with this disease-my aunt died at 19 as one of the very last because we then had an effective treatment. Illegal aliens, not going through the correct channels, brought it back to the US. I have zero tolerance or sympathy for this person. If he was worried about his liver he should have given up drugs and alcohal-pretty sure that was a lame excuse.
Report Post »SageInWaiting
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 3:34pmWorried about his liver but not his lungs… or the lungs of all the people sitting in a bus with him?
ANOTHER example of the narcissism in this country. A “public health official” SHOULD be concerned about containing the spread of a contagious disease. If the man has active (contagious) TB, WHAT IS HE DOING WALKING THE STREETS? This doesn’t mean a sanitarium as in the past, necessarily; it DOES require the person show concern about his neighbors by taking medications and limiting outside exposure through self-quarantine and use of masks when he needs to go out. Except for the morbidity/death rate of the infection, I would expect similar actions from people with severe cold and flu symptoms – if you’re sick, stay home and don’t infect your classmates or coworkers… This is an issue of SELF governance and consideration of others; if he can’t take the responsibility, it‘s society’s (government’s) obligation ensure that he does.
THIS WORLD HAS GONE INSANE!
Report Post »Mark0331
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:58pmPublic health quarantine and isolation are legal authorities that may be, but rarely are, implemented to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. Isolation may be used for ill people, to protect the public by preventing exposure to infected people. Quarantine may be used to restrict the movement of well people who may have been exposed to a communicable disease until it can be determined if they are ill, for example, people who have a communicable disease but do not know it, or may have the disease but do not show symptoms….pretty straightforward…this guy needs to be put away, for the safety of all.
Report Post »momrules
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:19pmMark……….In 1952 America had it’s last epidemic of polio and people were quaratined to stop the spread of that horrible disease.
I was one of those people. I was taken to Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston and kept there until the disease ran it’s course and I was no longer a danger to anyone. I was three years old. Quarantine worked then and it would work now.
Report Post »FromSeaToSea
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:55pmWhy are we so quick to legislate and criminalize our rights and freedoms? Step by step justification is made to take His rights and then Yours.
He should be hospitalized but not criminalized. He should be executed if He intentionally gives someone the disease but not before.
Report Post »kindling
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 6:36pm“He should be hospitalized but not criminalized. He should be executed if He intentionally gives someone the disease but not before.”
I think he knew he was intentionally making no effort to protect those around him. He knew/knows he had a serious disease and does not care. He is irresponsible and can’t be trusted to keep his bugs to himself and should be locked up.
Report Post »SquidVetOhio
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:52pm“After failing one time to give himself the drugs, Rodriguez told a nurse he had gone on an alcohol binge and taken methamphetamine and didn’t want to hurt his liver”
Because he is clearly concerned about is health. Binge alcohol drinking is great for your liver!
Geesh.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:02pmI agree. Something does not compute here.
Report Post »tzion
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 2:37pmDitto to that. If you‘re concerned about your liver you wouldn’t binge on alcohol to begin with. Then of course there’s the issue that methamphetamine is ILLEGAL. This guy admitted to using illegal drugs and no one did anything.
Report Post »Bill Wallace
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:46pmLawrence Gostin is an idiot.
You can charge a person for spreading HIV without informing the other part of the sexual experience. Why? Cause HIV poses a serious health risk. Not only can you be charged criminally, but also civilly.
How is TB any different?
Instead, we have this tool that is more concerned with meth and alcohol binges than the safety of kids, elderly, or others.
BTW…is this guy illegal? He is in San(ctuary) Fransicko, has TB which is a routine vaccination for Americans…
Why not look into it and deport him if he is not here legally? Save the cost of treatment, save the people.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:57pmI too would like to know his immigration status … I understand that TB is one of many, diseases illegals are bringing with them. Send him home if he is not a citizen.
Report Post »toto
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 4:07pmWhen was the last time anyone was charged for having sex without informing the partner of HIV infection? I’d love to see the statistics on that one.
Report Post »vic138
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:44pmWelcome to the third world everyone…
Report Post »Watermain
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:42pmAs an ER nurse I completely agree with forcing patients to take TB meds. I am tired of being sneezed on by third world immigrants with antibiotic resistant strains of TB and who knows what else.
Report Post »Rob Taylor
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:40pmWouldn’t he have been arrested for tweaking anyway?
Report Post »Elena2010
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:35pmThis is how antibiotic-resistant strains develop.
If he were so worried abt his liver, then why is he drinking and drugging to begin with? Lame excuse for not taking his meds.
His actions are as negligent as a drunk driver. Butt to jail, no if‘s and’s or but’s!
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:35pm“After failing one time to give himself the drugs, Rodriguez told a nurse he had gone on an alcohol binge and taken methamphetamine and didn’t want to hurt his liver”. LMAO!!!!
This is an example of how we get polypharmaceutical-resistant bacteria. Thanks for contributing to the problem, you jerk.
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on May 17, 2012 at 1:30pmOh, boy, joeybaby is in deep trouble now!
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