Cops afraid to work

SOME police are afraid to go to work at the Siparia police station considering that just days after a colleague became infected with tuberculosis (TB), another has fallen ill.

Although officials from the Health Ministry sanitised the station at High Street in Siparia, some police believe that more should be done to protect them. They are calling for all police in the station to be tested for TB to prevent any more cases. At least three officers from the South-Western Division suggested that the station be closed in the interim.

Police believe the issue is being “downplayed” while their lives and that of their families are at stake.

“We have to protect and serve, so who is protecting us?” one officer asked. “This affects our family life too and there is no counselling or support for us and our families. This is how the police care for their own.”

The latest victim tested positive after medical staff did a Mantoux test on Wednesday at the San Fernando General Hospital.

“Doctors said he must do another type of test which takes three days. He has to wait six weeks before he gets the result of that second test. They gave this officer nothing in the interim, not even a panadol,” another policeman said.

Doctors did not give the policeman any medication and he is not warded.

According to the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, the Mantoux test, also called a tuberculin skin test is used to check whether a person may have been infected with TB.

On Saturday, the first policeman was admitted at the Caura Hospital for the infectious disease and is still there. On admission to that hospital, doctors had advised that his colleagues also seek treatment immediately.

“Police interact with an average of 30 prisoners daily. They do not have gloves, dust masks or hand sanitisers. This affects police mentally also because of the stigma it has. How would you feel working with someone with TB? People would shun them and take a back seat,” said another police.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick. There are two TB-related conditions namely latent TB infection and TB disease. People could develop TB disease if they do not receive treatment for latent TB infection

On Monday, members of the public were turned away from the station at High Street. Instead, they were advised to go to the nearby headquarters to make reports. By evening, health officials declared the station safe to inhabit.

Yesterday, health officials returned and held a two-part lecture about TB, police said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says TB is spread from person to person through the air. When a person with lung TB coughs, sneezes or spits, he/she propels the TB bacteria into the air. WHO says someone needs to inhale only a few of these bacteria to become infected. TB is curable and preventable.

Police Social and Welfare Association president Michael Seales yesterday told Newsday he was unaware that a second policeman had fallen ill. He said that on Monday he contacted acting Police Commissioner Stephen Williams and informed him that the first officer had fallen ill.

“If a second officer fell ill, that was not reported to me as yet.”

Seales said that in cases of TB, the procedure is for the health personnel to isolate the issue.

“They would respond and give an all-clear that the place can be repopulated and inhabited by the people who have to work there. I am sure that that has been done already. I haven’t gotten a negative response to indicate that it was not done.”