Is it Legal for persons who are "Carriers" of Hepatitis, to be housed with healthy inmates???

Question

I have recently discovered that in some of the jails and prisons,
persons who have moderate to severe Hepatitis C, are put
in the ''general population'' of that type of facility, and to me, this is ''putting other people's lives...AT RISK'', and if it is
against the Law, then I do think that the System, should be
''held responsible'' for putting healthy people's lives, on the
line, for health dangers.
From what I understand, persons with Hep/C, and Genital
Organ Diseases do not have to Register with some of the
State Health Departments, but persons who are ''carriers''
of Aids, are required to Register.
I'm wondering why it is not a law, that these others "carriers''
of Incurable, Highly Contagious Diseases, aren't required to
Register, or are they??? In which States??
I don't know about other people, but this type of neglect, by
the law enforcement / jail-prison systems isn't right, and it
should be of great concern to us all, right??
How many in ur area?? Tomenyhere

Answer 1

Oh my goodness, where do I start?? First of all, people with hepatitis c do not need to be quarantined, in jail or otherwise, because there is no risk of catching Hep C UNLESS they have blood to blood contact (IV drugs, tattoos, risky sex, etc). While all of the above activities do happen in prison/jail, they are prohibited regardless of the inmates health status. And as you know, many inmates engage in prohibited activities while incarcerated; that's a choice they make.
Hepatitis A, B, C are all "reportable diseases" and are reported to the CDC. Beyond that, there are no limitations on people with hepatitis B or C (the chronic viral hepatitis infections).
Incidentally, there are four times more people living with hepatitis C than HIV. Many people don't know they have it because the symptoms are so subtle and it's not discovered until they've had it for decades. That's why ALL blood & bodily fluid should be treated with universal precautions, not just in hospitals & jails, but everywhere.
FYI- you may have had a risk factor for hepatitis C if you've had the following!:
-blood transfusion before 1992
-military pnuematic vaccinations
-IV drug use even if only one time
-tattoos
-piercings
-exposure to blood through medical job(EMT, Dr., Nurse, paramedic, dental tech, etc)
-kidney dialysis
-shared a razor or toothbrush with someone who has HCV
-MSM sex, or rough, kinky sex where blood is exchanged

Hopefully, if people become educated about this, they won't freak out and think people with HCV should be separated from others.

Answer 2

You wanna do the crime..your gonna do the time. I find this to be a terribly stupid question. Do your homework, or better yet FOLLOW THE LAW of whatever country you live in and stay out of jail. Why do WE, the taxpayers, have to provide people that can't follow the laws, protection? Its the same on the inside as the outside.

Answer 3

It is legal. It's on quarantine law and contagious disease law. Hepatitis only contaqious in certain ways (sex, blood, etc) and become one of social diseases. There's no use to 'discriminate' them from us. They suffer already.
I worried too of course, but there's universal precaution about this.

Answer 4

First of all Hep C is not highly contagious. It is a blood born virus and is transmitted by sharing needles or blood transfusion with contaminated blood, not by casual contact and rarely transmitted sexually.
HIV on the other hand is sexually transmitted and there fore a threat to any inmate who engages in sex with an infected partner.

Answer 5

When I worked in the federal prison system they were in general population but weren't allowed to work in food service. Also it was kept in their file in case of them getting in a fight or other injury in case of them bleeding on staff or other inmates. It's a seriously flawed system.

Answer 6

My understanding is that Hepatitis C is a sexually transmitted disease, so I'm not sure that it's putting someone's life at risk to put an inmate with Hepatitis C in the same cell as one who doesn't have it. Perhaps you're confusing the transmission pattern of Hepatitis C with Hepatitis A or B? They are different diseases.