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August 2007
Should teen have been jailed for refusing tuberculosis treatment?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By A 17-year-old Gwinnett County resident diagnosed with tuberculosis has started taking medicine for the disease, but he remains in a medical isolation cell in the Gwinnett jail, Sheriff Butch Conway said.
Gwinnett health officials jailed Francisco Santos Friday after he refused to accept treatment for an active, contagious case of tuberculosis. Santos said he was leaving the country to return to his native Mexico, health officials said.
“I think he was scared,” said David Will, attorney for the Gwinnett County Board of Health.
Officials were aware of the recent incident involving Atlanta lawyer Andrew Speaker, who also has tuberculosis. After Speaker left for his wedding in Greece, a national news conference set off an international health scare.
In this case, the Gwinnett officials acted decisively: they put Santos in jail Friday evening, in a rare act of a government agency confining a sick person. Santos is in a special medical isolation cell designed for inmates with contagious conditions. The cell, which measures about 15 feet by 20 feet, has a special ventilation system that keeps the air from reaching other inmates.
Did officials do the right thing?
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Should metro Atlanta’s second airport be in Lawrenceville?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is already the world’s busiest, serving 85 million passengers last year and expected to serve double that number by 2025. That phenomenal growth raises the specter of the Atlanta region running short on airport capacity sometime in the next decade.
Anticipating that crunch, the U.S. Department of Transportation recently awarded a million-dollar grant to the city of Atlanta, the owner and operator of Hartsfield, to study the possibility of a second airport in the region. But where would that new airport go?
South of Hartsfield-Jackson, open land is still relatively cheap and plentiful. The lower population density in the region’s southern crescent also means that fewer homes and businesses would be adversely affected by a new airport.
On the other hand, an airport in the more heavily populated northern suburbs and exurbs would be closer to its customer base —- the majority of Georgia residents who use Hartsfield today live north of I-20, But it would also be more expensive and more difficult politically. Just ask proponents of the Northern Arc, including former Gov. Roy Barnes. His support for the controversial highway through the northern exurbs contributed a lot to his failed re-election bid.
Smaller existing airports, including those in Gainesville, Lawrenceville, Macon, Columbus and Savannah, also might be possible alternatives.
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