Worst TB outbreak in 5 years hits Alabama prisons
By JAY REEVES
AP.org
Aug. 14, 2014
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s prison system, badly overcrowded and facing a lawsuit over medical treatment of inmates, is facing its worst outbreak of tuberculosis in five years, a health official said Thursday.
Pam Barrett, director of tuberculosis control for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said medical officials have diagnosed nine active cases of the infectious respiratory disease in state prisons so far this year.
While the number isn’t huge, Alabama prisons averaged fewer than five TB cases annually each year since 2009 and didn’t have any last year, Barrett said.
“This is a very serious outbreak,” she said.
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