(June 14, 2007)

PORT ARTHUR, Texas (AP) - Authorities are seeking a Port Arthur man who has been ordered by a judge to undergo treatment for tuberculosis at a San Antonio hospital.

Doctor William George, the city health authority, says 32-year-old Lemone R- Yowman poses a public health threat and should be confined and treated immediately.

Yowman has a drug-susceptible strain of tuberculosis.

It's a different variety than the drug-resistant strain that infected Atlanta attorney Andrew Speaker, whose T-B case caused an international scare.

George tells The Associated Press that Yowman's case should be easily treatable but he's, quote, "hiding from us."

A man who answered the phone at the resident of "L. Yowman" last night told the A-P that Lemone Yowman was not there. The man acknowledged knowing Yowman, then hung up.

City health and government officials say police have sought Yowman since Friday, when a state district judge ordered him to go to San Antonio, the Beaumont Enterprise reported.

The man, under Port Arthur Health Department care for the disease since January, has refused treatment since April, according to court documents.

George says cases of T-B are common in Southeast Texas, and most of them are the drug-susceptible type treatable by standard drug therapy.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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