BATON ROUGE — Louisiana officials want federal immigration officials to prevent the release of any inmate at Basile and Monroe who may have been exposed to a rare form of tuberculosis carried by a Chinese woman who was allowed into the detention centers' general population this summer.

Citing their hope to prevent a public health emergency, Gov. Jeff Landry and others say no inmate should be released until the state Department of Health has given them a medical clearance. Federal officials, according to court filings, have said they would notify the state of pending releases, but wouldn't prevent an inmate's departure if federal policy mandated it.

The state's legal proceedings are just precautionary at this stage. At a news conference Wednesday, health officials say there had been no confirmed case of transmission from a person they identified as "Patient Zero," and the person has been responding well to treatment.

Louisiana's lawsuit asks that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detain all Louisiana inmates from the two facilities pending a state medical review. Without the order, the state claims, ICE would "release detainees onto Louisiana streets, its bus stations, and its airports."

The lawsuit says the inmate is infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis, which impacts the lungs. It says the variant is drug-resistant and poses a grave danger. It also says that the inmate has been in contact with about 200 other people — prisoners and non-prisoners alike.

"Studies say the mortality rate is anywhere from 34-39%," the state says in its lawsuit, which was filed Oct. 16 under seal and unsealed Tuesday. While still under seal, a judge told ICE to abide by the state's request pending a hearing in Lafayette on Oct. 31.

The lawsuit says testing on the woman in July was "highly positive" for TB, but she was placed in the general population in August. In September, sputum samples tested positive for TB and the state Health Department received test results positive for the drug-resistant variant.

State officials couldn't explain Wednesday why a person suspected of having TB would be let into the general population of a prison.

Dr. Ralph Abraham, the state's surgeon general, said the inmate was responding positively.

"As of today, Patient Zero is pretty much asymptomatic but still receiving medication," Abraham said. The health officials said it could take six months to fully rebound from a TB case.

In a highly redacted portion of the lawsuit, Patient Zero entered the U.S. via Mexico this year and was detained in California in July. The person flew on a plane with 100 other detainees to Alexandria, and then was on a bus with 40 others and traveled to the Richwood Correction Center in Monroe.

The inmate was diagnosed with TB at Richwood on July 23. Three days later, she was transferred to Basile.

The state says that it was told Oct. 15 that ICE would give the state a few hours' notice of any inmate's release but would not comply with an order that the state Health Department give each a medical clearance.

Louisiana says it received an email from ICE that day saying, "If we encounter a situation involving a detainee that (sic) we are legally required to release, we will contact LDH and provide time to take appropriate action and coordinate any transfer of custody to LDH as needed."

WBRZ reached out to the office of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for comment but has not heard back.

State officials advertised their news conference as one dealing with illegal immigration but it wasn't clear whether Patient Zero had TB when she entered the United States or contracted it here.