TB victim receives TV

This is a sad story. A Russian man suffering from highly contagious tuberculosis has been jailed since July in a Phoenix prison hospital after he refused a judge’s order to wear a hospital mask in public. “He’s in No Man’s Land,” said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “He’s not charged with a crime, yet he’s in a jail.” In fact, it may become his permanent home because under the civil commitment laws (no, this has nothing to do with gay marriage) Robert Daniels must get his infection under control before he is permitted to leave. Sadly, his form of TB has only a 30 percent cure rate and is “virtually untreatable with available drugs,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There is one piece of good news, however: after a public outcry, Daniels’s television, which was confiscated recently, will be returned. “I know how serious the situation is,” Daniels says. “It’s been finally explained to me.”