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Detention and the Evolving Threat of Tuberculosis: Evidence, Ethics, and Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Richard Coker ,
Marianna Thomas ,
Karen Lock  and
Robyn Martin
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Extract

The issue of detention as a tuberculosis control measure has resurfaced following the prolonged detention of a patient with an extensively drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis in a prison cell in Arizona, and the attempted detention in Italy and subsequent detention in Atlanta, Georgia of an American sufferer thought to have XDR-TB in May 2007. These cases have reignited the debate over the evidence that supports detention policy in the control of tuberculosis, and its associated legal and ethical ramifications. This paper considers whether involuntary detention is justified where voluntary measures have failed or where a patient poses a danger, albeit uncertain, to the public, and discusses the need for strengthening evidencebased assessments of public health risk.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , Winter 2007 , pp. 609 - 615
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2007

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