Teen TB patient incarcerated

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A teenager who refused treatment for tuberculosis was jailed in Georgia before he could leave for his home country of Mexico.

Francisco Santos, 17, who was living in Norcross, apparently was going to head for Mexico after being told by doctors at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville he was contagious with TB, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Saturday. Gwinnett County authorities took him into custody Friday evening and put him in an isolation cell pending a Sept. 5, the newspaper said.

Gwinnett health officials were tracking down people Santos may have come in contact with. The youth, who was believed to be unemployed, was born in Mexico but his citizenship status wasn’t clear.