SHAWNEE PRISON OFFICIALS MOVE TO IDENTIFY TB CARRIER

VIENNA, Ill. -- The Shawnee Correctional Center in Vienna has taken action to identify the active carrier of tuberculosis after more than 100 persons at the facility tested positive for the tuberculosis bacteria.

Warden Rich McVicar said eight staff members and 100 of the 1,800 inmates tested positive last week in a skin test for the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. McVicar said a positive skin test result does not necessarily mean an active case of the disease that causes lesions in lung tissue and lymph nodes, leading to coughing, fever, night sweats and spitting up blood.

The facility has scheduled 200 inmates, the 100 with positive skin tests and 100 with a medical inclination toward developing tuberculosis, for chest x-rays which will indicate who has the full-blown disease. Treatment has already begun to clear the 100 inmates of the skin bacteria. The x-rays will be completed next week.

"We're hoping the x-rays will determine who has the active case," McVicar said. "We believe it is only one inmate."

If the x-rays indicate a person has a more serious infection further tests will be conducted to determine if the disease is present, said Terry Caliper, the center's health care administrator. If an inmate is found to have tuberculosis he will be isolated for at least two to three weeks and medical treatment will continue for several months to cure the disease.

Caliper said five to 15 percent of those diagnosed with having the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, which is transmitted through the air by coughing, sneezing or speaking, will develop the disease within a five-year period. The bacteria could have been spread throughout the facility by a single inmate depending upon his job assignment, during dinners, yard activities or at class.

McVicar said the 100 infected inmates come from each of the four cell houses within the prison and are not limited to a particular holding section.

The facility has not calculated how much the test or treatments will cost the prison, but McVicar said regardless of the price the prison will pay it to insure the health of its staff and prisoner population. The highest cost, he said, has been the staff time to conduct the tests and move the prisoners from their cells to the medical center at the prison.

Prisoners are usually tested every year on their birthdays for tuberculosis. The staff is tested every April. After the staff testing, and the higher rate of positive tests, the entire inmate population was tested last week over four-day period.