Stockton:
Prosecutors in California said on Thursday that they have obtained an arrest warrant for a tuberculosis patient who is contagious and has refused treatment, putting those around him at risk.
Eduardo Rosas Cruz, a 25-year-old from Mexico, went to a hospital emergency room in March, complaining of a severe cough. Diagnosed with tuberculosis, medical staff told him to stay in a motel room, where a health worker would deliver his medication and watch him take it. But officials say he left.
Health officials asked prosecutors to seek the warrant, in part, because Rosas Cruz comes from a part of Mexico known for its drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis. Health officials are searching for Rosas Cruz, and his name is in a statewide law enforcement system, Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor said.
"He could be in a homeless shelter. He could be around the corner from the courthouse," Taylor said. "We don't know."
Tuberculosis spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The disease most commonly infects a person's lungs and can cause death.
Catching tuberculosis requires extended contact with a contagious person, said San Joaquin County's Public Health Officer, Dr. Alvaro Garza, adding that it is unclear if Rosas Cruz is contagious. Rosas Cruz needs a nine-month regime of medicine, which Garza said the patient is not near to completing.
"If you stop taking it, it comes roaring back," Garza said.
In court papers filed in support of the warrant, public health officials say Rosas Cruz resisted treatment from the start. He also uses crack cocaine and methamphetamine, officials said, adding that he could develop the drug resistance strain, if he hasn't already.
"We need help getting him in," Garza said. "We've not been able to find him in places he's told us he's going to be."
Rosas Cruz originally went to the hospital after feeling shortness of breath for two weeks, had a high fever and had lost considerable weight, in addition to the cough, according to court papers.
Taylor, who prosecutors public health cases, said he seeks arrest warrants like this once or twice each year.
Taylor, who did not know the status of Rosas Cruz's residency, said he is not interested in punishing him through the criminal court system. Rather, Taylor said he is using the courts to protect the public's health.