Health Information: Tuberculosis
Today’s health information subject, Ethical Dilemmas in Medicine.
Recently a 27 year old man infected with tuberculosis or TB was incarcerated in Arizona after he went into a convenience store without a mask. Doctors had advised him to wear a mask when outside of his home, so as not to infect others. This man did not follow doctors orders and was incarcerated for endangering the public. For some Americans, this sparks a debate regarding one’s civil liberties while raising an ethical dilemma to others.
This man has the disease known as tuberculosis or TB, but not just any type of TB. This man has a type of tuberculosis known as XDR-TB. This type of tuberculosis is drug resistant, meaning almost untreatable. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a bacterium that can infect any part of the human anatomy, but normally infects the lungs causing a respiratory infection named tuberculosis.
Why does this story raise such an ethical dilemma? Drug resistant diseases (tuberculosis and staphylococcus) are difficult or almost impossible to treat. If one extremely infectious individual goes out into public and knowingly infects others, what is not to stop a pandemic from occurring? Would you like to be infected with an untreatable disease?
