A man has been ordered confined to an Eau Claire hospital to protect public health. Karl Pha will be forced to accept treatment at Luther-Midelfort for tuberculosis after refusing to take his medicine consistently during at home treatment.

The Eau Claire City County Health Department says Pha needs to be confined to protect the health of his five young children, including an eight-month-old, and also to save his life.

"It's really based on whether a person is infectious and whether they're voluntarily accepting care and a cure for the disease," explains Health Department Director Richard Thoune.

That's the case of 65-year-old Karl Pha, who was diagnosed with tuberculosis in August.

Public Health Nurse Jackie Krumenauer told the court he stopped taking the anti-TB drugs because they caused bad side effects, like extreme itching. Despite education and other interventions, she says he refused treatment.

"He has indicated several times that he thinks he doesn't have TB," testified Krumenauer.

So the health department had to take the very rarely-used last resort—Confinement at Luther-Midelfort.

"Once the patient is suspected of having an airborne disease like tuberculosis, they are put into a separate, special airborne isolation room,” describes Infection Prevention Specialist Sue Shea.

Health care personnel and visitors will have to protect themselves with masks to filter out particles and stop the spread of disease.

"We don't want them transmitting the disease to other persons, so isolation is what is traditionally done."

The health department says TB is spread through coughing, but it's not as contagious as a common cold.

"That's an unfounded fear. It really does require a lot of close contact over a reasonable period of time,” says Thoune. “We're not talking about casual contact with someone in a public setting through a grocery store or anything like that."

But if it's left untreated, TB can still be fatal.

"Would monitoring by hospital staff improve his chances with the tuberculosis?" Judge Proctor asked Pha’s physician, Dr. Noyce, via telephone conference.

"Absolutely," responded Dr. Noyce.

Monday marked the fifth day of Pha's treatment in the hospital. Appearing in court via phone conference, he says his side effects have lessened in the hospital.

The health department says his children have been tested and they're fine. Nurses had recommended giving preventative drugs to the 8 month old baby, but the family stopped after the baby had side effects.