A 38-year-old bus driver is seen in clinic for fever, cough, and sputum with an apical infiltrate as well as sputum positive for acid-fast bacilli. The paticnt is unwilling to take tuberculosis (TB) medications consistently and his sputum remains positive for TB. Directly observed therapy while in his home has failed. You continue to cajole, discuss, encourage, threaten, educate, advise, and beg him to take the medications but he refuses.
What should you do?
a. Nothing, he has a right to autonomy.
b. Arrest the patient and put him in prison.
c. Remove the family from the house.
d. Remove the patient from his job as a bus driver and incarcerate him in a hospital to take medications.
e. Physically restrain the patient and place a nasogastric tube to give the medications.