By AP/KWMU
Moberly, MO – About 1,800 inmates at the Moberly Correction Center, just north of Columbia, will be tested starting today after an inmate there came down with tuberculosis.
Employees will also have TB test available to them. The state says the prisoner who contracted the disease is in respiratory isolation.
The Centers for Disease Control says tuberculosis is caused by a bacteria that usually attacks the lungs. It can be passed by coughing or sneezing on another person and was once the leading cause of death in the United States but drugs introduced in the 40s started a decline in numbers. Those numbers began creeping up in the 80's but have since dipped.