Five pris­on­ers are now quar­an­tined at the Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal af­ter test­ing pos­i­tive for Tu­ber­cu­lo­sis (TB).

In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, the Prison Ser­vice said that the in­mates; four from the  Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison and one from the Re­mand Fa­cil­i­ty at Gold­en Grove, Arou­ca had re­cent­ly ex­hib­it­ed symp­toms of TB. They were ex­am­ined and test­ed pos­i­tive.

The in­fect­ed in­mates were im­me­di­ate­ly tak­en to the Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal for treat­ment and wel­fare of­fi­cers were as­signed to in­form their im­me­di­ate fam­i­lies.  The Prison Ser­vice said that ar­eas, where the in­fect­ed in­mates were housed, were san­i­tized and con­tin­u­ous test­ings and screen­ings were be­ing con­duct­ed. Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons Den­nis Pul­chan com­mend­ed his of­fi­cers on the pro­fes­sion­al man­ner in han­dling the sit­u­a­tion and has as­sured that it is be­ing man­aged and mon­i­tored. 

Last March, a T&TEC em­ploy­ee test­ed pos­i­tive for the dis­ease while four col­leagues at an­oth­er cen­tre were found to have la­tent TB. 

In June 2018, there was al­so a TB scare at the Siparia Po­lice Sta­tion. 

What is TB

TB, a po­ten­tial­ly dead­ly dis­ease, tar­gets a per­son’s lungs. The bac­te­ria that cause TB can be spread from per­son to per­son through tiny droplets re­leased in­to the air dur­ing coughs and sneezes. TB can be ei­ther La­tent or Ac­tive. La­tent TB means that bac­te­ria is in a per­son’s body, but is in­ac­tive. Ac­tive TB oc­curs when the bac­te­ria make the per­son ill and can be spread to oth­ers. Signs and symp­toms of ac­tive TB in­clude bloody coughs, chest pain, un­in­ten­tion­al weight loss, fa­tigue, fever, night sweats, chills and loss of ap­petite.  

Care for TB pa­tients

TB out­pa­tient ser­vices are avail­able at Chest Clin­ics in the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, the South-West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty and the To­ba­go Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty.

TB in­pa­tient ser­vices are avail­able at the Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal.