Woman with TB in Washington who evaded treatment for a year is now cured

[thewayne]

Once she was arrested and health officials gained her trust, apparently she understood the risk she posed to the community and the infection posed to herself. She began treatment, her health improved, she regained weight, and is now cured and no longer a problem for the community.

While she was infected, amongst other things she had taken a public bus to a casino and had been in a traffic accident and later went to a hospital, complaining of chest pains. Her chest x-ray was so bad that the doctors thought she had lung cancer. It was actually showing that the TB had gotten much worse. Yet she continued to dodge health workers who wanted to get her into treatment.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/woman-who-went-on-the-lam-with-untreated-tb-is-now-cured/

Comments

[motodraconis]

Was she running away because she was terrified of being charged with a horrendous bill for medical treatment? Is she still going to get a horrendous bill for medical treatment?

You hear stories of this, of Americans refusing ambulances and the like, and I've read Americans blogging on LJ of how they get taken to church for people to pray for them, because the woo-woo is cheaper than actually seeing a doctor and getting treatment.

So yeah, I can see why she might have done this, and it shows how fucked up the health system is in the US, with people not just too scared to get treatment, but also, having to go to work when they are sick or infectious as they get no sick pay and still have to pay rent.

I mean, this was one of the "selfish" reasons the National Health Service was set up in the UK. Untreated infectious diseases will spread to everyone, and that will end up costing more money than treating the source. TB was a huge problem in the UK, it is now back on the rise, and part of that is because they have made it so difficult for any immigrants to access healthcare.

[thewayne]

As always, we work from imperfect information. I believe earlier information said that there may have been some mental health issues causing problems, I could hypothesis that there could have been some paranoia exacerbated by the illness affecting judgement. She was certainly being pursued, in one sense! I was under the impression that the State (or whatever level of government) was going to handle the cost of treatment, but again, imperfect information.

It's a really sucky industry. It's for profit, and huge profits are made at all levels. Yet people are conditioned to fight against "socialized" health care, not knowing how much it would save them by knocking so much profit out of the industry and making it more rational.

[motodraconis]

Thing is, had she gone for treatment from the beginning would "the state" have paid? Or did they only agree pick up the tab after it became a news story? That would have made her fucking about worth while.

[thewayne]

Absolutely no idea.  I wish I had more information, but there are thousands of plans and each one is different coverage.  I don't have a clue how my plan would handle it if I caught TB.