Diversity is strength alert!
This is a follow-up to the story we posted here about Christian Mbemba Ibanda who refused to obey county health officials when they told him he must stay home in order to keep from spreading Tuberculosis to one and all.
‘Pungentpeppers’ has been following the case.
First, he had to be put in jail for disobeying the court order to stay in his apartment. Yesterday, we learned, he was released.
We don’t know Ibanda’s immigration status, but if I were to make a wild guess, I think he may be a refugee possibly from the Congo. Remember in June of last year Asst. Secretary of State for PRM, Ann Richard, said 50,000 Congolese ‘refugees’ would soon be on their way to America.
‘PP’ noted that according to his facebook page, he speaks French. If any readers in Illinois know through which (presumably legal) immigration program he entered the US, let us know!
From the News-Gazette:
MONTICELLO — A Champaign tuberculosis patient under a court order to stay home is in jail in Piatt County.
Christian Mbemba Ibanda, 24, of 100 Kenwood Road, C, has been under a Champaign County court order since April 11 to remain confined to his apartment to keep from infecting others with his disease, and a petition for indirect criminal contempt of court for failing to follow court orders was filed against him Thursday.
Deputies arrested Ibanda at his apartment Thursday. At a hearing held at the Piatt County Jail Tuesday with his lawyer present, he denied the allegations. A hearing on the petition has been scheduled for May 5 before Champaign County Associate Judge Chase Leonhard.
Ibanda is incarcerated in Piatt County because its jail has a negative pressure room that doesn’t share the air with other people, according to Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh. Champaign County is paying $50 a day plus medical costs to keep Ibanda in that jail, he said.
Health officials begged him to stay home and keep the quarantine sign on his door. He did neither.
Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Administrator Julie Pryde said the court order wasn’t disobeyed just once. Ibanda was being monitored with an electronic ankle bracelet that alerted authorities if he left his home, and he got numerous warnings, she said.
“He was just like running around,” Pryde said. “I went and talked to him and said, ‘Seriously, please stay in your apartment, keep the sign on the door. Take the medicine. This is not that hard, or you risk going to jail. This is a court order.'”
[…..]
The health district sought the court order initially because Ibanda wouldn’t cooperate with home isolation while he was considered able to infect others, and the order to keep him home was issued without Ibanda present when he didn’t appear for a scheduled hearing.
Update yesterday, no longer testing positive for active TB, he was released, but must take meds for seven more months under the watchful eye of a health worker ($$$).
I continue to be amazed that stories like this one never break out of the local media to make it to the national news.
For more on medical problems brought to America by refugees and immigrants generally, check out our ‘health issues’ category, here. The foreign-born represent most US TB cases, here.