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Leading State Democrat Calls for Investigation of TB Outbreak


July 13, 2012 | WMFE - Florida State Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich says the Legislature needs to investigate an outbreak of tuberculosis in Jacksonville. The bacterial disease sprang up two years ago in a jail, a homeless shelter, and a mental health clinic in Northeast Florida.


Sen. Rich wrote a letter to State Senate President Mike Haridopolos saying that lawmakers should have been made aware of the outbreak before they voted to close A.G. Holley Hospital in Palm Beach County. The facility was the state’s last hospital dedicated to treating the disease until it closed early this month.

“We’re learning now that there are something like 3000 people who have been exposed.” Rich said. “Only about 250 actually have been screened. So what happened to all the others?”

The Florida Department of Health says media reports exaggerated the danger of the outbreak and that the agency notified the proper officials.
Federal health investigators called the Jacksonville outbreak the worst eruption of tuberculosis in twenty years.

Rich, a Democrat from Weston, is running for governor.

 

 

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