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Ramsey County health officials are looking for people who spent time at the county's workhouse last spring.  They're trying to determine if any former inmates were exposed to tuberculosis.  

Ramsey County officials say an inmate with an active case of tuberculosis may have infected dozens of fellow inmates and workhouse employees earlier this year.  

So far the county has tested 42 people, and 22 of them have tested positive for the latent tuberculosis infection.   

Rob Fulton, director of the St. Paul-Ramsey County Department of Public Health, says officials are looking for 168 more people.    

"We're particularly looking for people who were in residence at the workhouse between the dates April 14 to June 9," Fulton said.

Officials have tried to contact the former inmates by mail and by phone.  They're also offering a $50 cash incentive for former inmates to come in and get tested. The county has set up a TB Testing Hotline, 651-266-2440.


People with latent, or inactive, TB don't show symptoms and
cannot spread the disease. However, if latent TB is left untreated
it can turn into more serious active TB.


Health officials say the general public is not at a heightened
risk of getting the disease, since transmission requires close
contact with someone showing symptoms.

Symptoms of general TB include feelings of sickness or weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats.  

Symptoms of TB disease of the lungs include coughing, chest pain, and the coughing up of blood.  Symptoms of TB disease in other parts of the body depend on the area affected. 

      
      (The Associated Press contributed to this report)

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Toni Randolph

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A former inmate of the Ramsey County workhouse has tested positive for active tuberculosis, and health officials are looking for people who may have been exposed to that person while at the facility.

In Ramsey County, health officials are trying to find 168 inmates who were housed in the county workhouse earlier this year. They fear those inmates may have been exposed to tuberculosis by a man living there. Minnesota Public Radio's Toni Randolph is in the studio with more information.

Ramsey County workhouse inmates possibly exposed to TB

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