Entire Duval Homeless Population to Be Tested for Tuberculosis

Public health officials from the federal government, the state and for the city of Jacksonville said Monday they're going to test the entire homeless population in Duval County for tuberculosis.

It's the best way to minimize the spread of the disease, they said.

John Armstrong, surgeon general for the state health department, told The Florida Times Union that the Duval County Health Department, along with the Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, will aggressively test homeless people at shelters, in food lines and through mobile units.

Read the CDC report on tuberculosis outbreak among Duval homeless.

Beginning next week, five five-person teams will go into the community to begin testing, Armstrong said.

He told the newspaper that these teams hope to find 90 percent of the almost 3,000 people who had contact with those who tested positive to the FL 0046 strain within the next six weeks, a process that typically takes six months.