Arrest Warrant Issued For Contagious Tuberculosis Patient Stockton Police Say Is Refusing Treatment

STOCKTON (CBS/AP) -- Prosecutors in Central California have obtained an arrest warrant for a tuberculosis patient who they say is contagious and has refused treatment, putting those around him at risk.

San Joaquin County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Taylor said Thursday that police are looking for 25-year-old Eduardo Rosas Cruz, a transient who comes from a part of Mexico known for a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis spreads through the air when infected people cough, sneeze, or otherwise expel air from their lungs. The disease can be deadly.

Prosecutors say Rosas Cruz was diagnosed with TB in March when he went to the county hospital for treatment of a severe cough. He was supposed to stay in a Stockton motel room, where a health worker would deliver his medication and watch him take it. But prosecutors say he took off.

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