CHAMPAIGN- A judge ordered a 20 year old Champaign man to stay in his apartment after he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Clasance Botembe stood with his attorney, Jerome Lyke Wednesday afternoon at the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District building.
Botembe was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis on December 1, 2008. A doctor ordered him immediately to treatment and isolation. When the Public Health District came to Botembe's apartment for his therapy he had a visitor over watching a movie and was not wearing a respirator mask. That is when the Illinois Department of Public Health ordered a legal quarantine.
This is the first hearing for a order of isolation for a communal disease in Champaign County. Tuberculosis, is a potentially lethal bacteria that can be spread through the air. The county was in uncharted water handling this case, there were several questions as to if the media was allowed in the hearing. After some deliberation and discussion about the patients privacy, Judge John Kennedy decided the news media would be allowed to stay inside the conference room for the hearing.
The health district employees worked fast to hand out N-95 respirator masks to anyone entering the hearing.