Reference no: EM133481265

Case Study : A Preventable Disease, Maybe

On March 24, 2010, the CDC Los Angeles Quarantine Station was notified about an elderly legal immigrant from Mexico with an infectious disease. The patient was admitted to a Nevada hospital in October 2009. Sputum smears revealed the presence of acid-fast bacilli (AFB), and standard four-drug treatment (isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol) was started empirically. The local clinic provided outpatient treatment under DOTs until December 2009, when the patient abruptly left the United States for Mexico without notifying the clinic, and before drug susceptibility tests showed isoniazid resistance. The patient returned briefly to the United States in March 2010, but made no contact with local control officers. The CDC issued a federal isolation order and placed the patient on public health travel restriction lists. In September 2010, the patient was detected by CBP at a border crossing in El Paso, Texas. The CDC El Paso Quarantine Station served a federal isolation order, and the patient was transported to a nearby Texas hospital under CBP custody for evaluation and treatment. After three sputum specimens tested AFB smear-negative, the patient was escorted by a CDC quarantine public health officer to Nevada. The federal isolation order was rescinded, and the patient was transferred to the custody of a local health department for court-ordered home isolation. Compliance with an effective treatment regimen, administered through directly observed therapy, permitted removal of federal travel restrictions in November 2010.

Questions

1. What is the disease, and the etiology?

2. What are the signs and symptoms of this disease?

3. What is the worldwide morbidity and mortality of the disease?

4. How is it treated (DOTs included), how contagious is it?

5. What is the latent form of this disease?

6. What are the reasons why we don't get the vaccine?