Healthy People. Healthy Choices. Healthy Lake County.
Patient
Stories
Tuberculosis Program
Tuberculosis (TB) is not a thing of the past. The Health
Department’s Tuberculosis Clinic treats an average of 11 active
TB cases each year. Because the disease is so contagious, staff
members need to observe their patients taking their medication
every day to ensure they are appropriately completing their
treatment. This can be taxing on both the staff and the patients
who need to be home at designated times. But a creative
solution has worked well with one patient, and will be used in
the future with more.
The patient, whom we will call Jane, recently immigrated to the
United States. She was adjusting to life in America, when she
suddenly became ill with a cough, fever, headache and chills.
After receiving numerous tests and spending three weeks in a
hospital, she was diagnosed with TB.
TB is a contagious and often severe airborne disease caused
by a bacterial infection. Patients can be cured through a daily
dose of antibiotics taken for a six- to nine-month period. For
her treatment, Jane was referred to the Health Department’s TB
clinic, which is responsible for the prevention and control of TB
in Lake County.
As they do with all of their pulmonary TB patients, TB clinic staff
began visiting Jane on a daily basis. But after a month, they started a new approach. Instead of visiting her in
person to observe her taking her medication, they began to Skype, a free voice and video internet service. This
gave more flexibility to Jane and allowed staff to allocate more time to clinic patients. Jane was even able to
Skype using her phone when she briefly went out of the country for a family emergency.
“Health Department staff has been very caring,” said Jane. “They have helped me in many ways.”
Jane is now more than half way through her treatment and is no longer contagious. She hopes to become a
waitress or store clerk when she is completely cured.
Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center 2013 Annual Report
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