Tacoma woman who refused tuberculosis treatment now healthy: ‘She’s cured!’
Jul 23, 2024, 1:22 PM
Doctors and nurses at a health center use N95 respiratory masks as they treat a patient who is suspected of having the swine flu or tuberculosis. (Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)
(Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)
A Tacoma woman who refused tuberculosis (TB) treatment for months last year is now healthy.
“We have a happy update: She’s cured!” the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) stated.
The health department reported the woman is cooperating with the Pierce County Superior Court’s orders and disease investigators.
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The Tacoma TB saga started in January 2023 when health officials said the woman was declining offers of medication.
Nigel Turner, division director of Communicable Disease Control (CDC), told KIRO Newsradio that in January, the CDC was working with the woman’s family to try to persuade her to get treatment. While untreated and active cases can be contagious, Turner said TB is not easily transmitted and requires contact with an infected person in an enclosed space for several hours.
“Most people we contact are happy to get the treatment they need,” Turner said. “Occasionally, people refuse treatment and isolation. When that happens, we take steps to help keep the community safe. It’s really in everybody’s interest if people get cured so that they stay healthy and it avoids that risk to the public.”
Health officials said antibiotics can cure TB and it can also resolve on its own, but that can take years. People with active, untreated infections “represent a risk to the community,” added officials.
In March 2023, the woman faced arrest after she continued to be in public with untreated TB.
“The judge issued a warrant for civil arrest on or following Friday, March 3, for the woman to be taken to a specially designed facility at the Pierce County Jail for isolation testing and treatment,” Dr. Anthony Chen, Director of TPCHD, told KIRO Newsradio.
The court order said she could be released when she was no longer a threat to the community. The woman was not forced to have any medical treatments.
However, the woman was taken into custody, three months later, after reportedly defying law enforcement’s orders for isolation.
“Pierce County Deputies located and detained the woman Pierce County Superior court mandated to comply with Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department orders to isolate her,” Darren Moss with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office told MyNorthwest in June 2023.
Officials said the woman was isolated until she accepted treatments or tested negative for TB.
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On July 25, 2023, TPCHD reported the woman had tested negative three times and therefore her isolation and electronic home monitoring were ended. However, health officials said she was “no longer infectious” but had not confirmed her as “cured.”
Nearly a year later, on Tuesday, TPCHD officially announced her as “cured.”
Contributing: Lisa Brooks and Sam Campbell, KIRO Newsradio; L.B. Gilbert, MyNorthwest
Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.
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