Hey all... I'm new to the group. I am very, very worried about my boyfriend. He is an inmate at the Estrella Jail and has been very sick the past couple weeks. He has always been so healthy, so to see him like this scares me. He put in 3 "tank orders" to see a doctor and finally they called him in to see one on Thursday, but the doctor decided to take a three hour lunch break while he waited and they told him to come back Monday. They drew blood and did a TB test... is this just routine? I know TB is associated with prisons. If he does have something serious are they required to treat him??? If it's TB, do they treat the inmates with the D.O.T.S. TB treatment?? Does anyone have experience with jail medical treatment? He is only supposed to be in there two more week...THANK YOU GOD!!!! I just don't want anything bad to happen before that.

Thanks for any info!!
MistyRain

Welcome to PTO! TB and a few others are occurring in Az Prison, but they check the inmates so Blood test for TB is normal. Also a lot of skin infections go around , tell him to make sure and wear his sandals when in the shower and use your own towel.

I used to work at a jail, and anyone in for more than 2 days got a TB test. After 7 days, they got a blood test for syphilis. If they tested positive for TB, they would automatically get started on meds. If they got released before finishing treatment, they had to follow-up with the health dept. One guy didn't bother to follow-up, and was tossed back in jail.

There has been numerous cases confirmed of TB in the Madison Jail - especially in the sex offender cell houses-this has been going on for the past 6 months or longer. Most are given antibiotics as soon as the test results come back positive, they are ALL suppossed to be given treatment for anything that is contagious esp. when it poses a risk to the safety and public health-some still don't get proper treatment for conditions, regardless of what they are in jail.

Inmates should not share clothing, towels, linens, shoes, socks, etc. and use common sense when they are in jail to prevent the spread of infection as much as possible. Anyone with open wounds, lesions, dry patches or areas of redness that itch should be checked out asap, TB also comes with a very persistant cough, dry, hacky sounding, kind of like croup in babies is what the cough sounds like. TB can cause serious problems and even death so it's important to educate those in jail so they can prevent the spread of this and other contageous infections as much as possible on their own in there and help make others aware of these things too, the more they know, the better they will be in the long run..