TB Breakout Alert
By: Joe Griffin
Updated: July 31, 2008
There is fear of a tuberculosis outbreak among Lubbock's Sheriff's Deputies and City of Lubbock workers.Officials confirm a deputy has tested positive for the serious respiratory disease and is currently taking treatment.
That deputy also monitored a prisoner work team that cleans the Lubbock Animal Shelter.
Several inmates have been quarantined until their tests come back and all deputies and Animal Services workers are being tested.
"For someone who is in contact for twelve hours a day, he or she has about a fifty percent chance of acquiring TB in six months," said Dr. Joe Sasin of University Medical Center. "People in nursing homes, prisons, and drug users have extremely high risk of carrying TB."
Most cases of TB are treatable.
Sheriff David Gutierrez said the situation is under control and they are following Center of Disease Control protocols.
