Posted on 05/30/2007 10:35:22 AM PDT by Cinnamon Girl
'This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've co-operated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy.'— Man with drug resistant TB says he returned to U.S. despite risks to get treatment
A man with a form of tuberculosis so dangerous he is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963 told a newspaper he took one trans-Atlantic flight for his wedding and honeymoon and another because he feared for his life.
Hundreds of health authorities around the world including Canada are now scrambling to track down passengers who were seated near the man so they can be tested, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Julie Gerberding said Wednesday. "There are two aspects to this," Gerberding said. "One is, is the patient himself highly infectious? Fortunately, in this case, he's probably not. But the other piece is this bacteria is a very deadly bacteria. We just have to err on the side of caution."
Health officials said that the man had been advised not to fly and that he knew he could expose others when he boarded the jets from Atlanta to Paris, and later from Prague to Montreal.
The man, however, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that doctors didn't order him not to fly and only suggested he put off his long-planned wedding in Greece.
He knew he had a form of tuberculosis that was resistant to first-line drugs, but he didn't realize it could be so dangerous, he said. "We headed off to Greece thinking everything's fine," said the man, who declined to be identified because of the stigma attached to his diagnosis.
Isolation order
He flew to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385. While in Europe, health authorities reached him with the news that further tests had revealed his TB was a rare, "extensively drug-resistant" form, far more dangerous than he knew. They ordered him into isolation, saying he should turn himself over to Italian officials.
Instead, the man flew from Prague to Montreal on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 0104, then drove into the United States at the Champlain, N.Y., border crossing. He told the newspaper he was afraid that if he didn't get back to the U.S., he wouldn't get the treatment he needed to survive.
He is now at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital in respiratory isolation.
Officials with the CDC and the Public Health Agency of Canada have recommended medical exams for cabin crew members and passengers who sat within two rows of the man on the flights. The advice is consistent with guidelines from the World Health Organization.
The other passengers are not considered at high risk of infection because tests indicated the amount of TB bacteria in the man was low, said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration and quarantine.
But Gerberding noted that U.S. health officials have had little experience with the "extensively drug-resistant" form. It's possible it may have different transmission patterns, she said. He didn't have symptoms and didn't appear to be coughing, but officials simply don't know yet. Tracking passengers
Dr. Howard Njoo of the Public Health Agency of Canada said it appeared unlikely that the man spread the disease on the flight into Canada. Still the agency was working with U.S. officials to contact passengers who sat near him.
Anyone in Canada with questions about TB or this particular case can contact the Public Health Agency of Canada through Health Canada's toll-free number at 1-866-225-0709.
French health officials have asked for lists of all passengers seated within two rows of the infected man, and Czech airline CSA is contacting passengers and co-operating with health authorities, airline spokespeople said.
The man told the Journal-Constitution he was in Rome during his honeymoon when the CDC told him to turn himself in to Italian authorities to be isolated and be treated. The CDC told him he couldn't fly aboard commercial airliners. No-fly list
"I thought to myself: You're nuts. I wasn't going to do that. They told me I had been put on the no-fly list and my passport was flagged," the man said.
He told the paper he and his wife decided to sneak back into the U.S. via Canada. He said he voluntarily went to a New York hospital, then was flown by the CDC to Atlanta.
He is not facing prosecution, health officials said. His wife has tested negative for TB and is not considered a risk to public health.
"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he told the paper. "This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've co-operated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing."
CDC officials told the Associated Press they could not immediately comment on the interview.
The quarantine order was the first since the government quarantined a patient with smallpox in 1963, according to the CDC.
Tuberculosis is a disease caused by germs that are spread from person to person through the air. It usually affects the lungs and can lead to symptoms such as chest pain and coughing up blood. It kills nearly two million people each year worldwide.
In Canada, there have been two reported cases of XDR-TB, one in 2003 and the other in 2006, both in Ontario, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. The U.S. had 17 XDR-TB cases since 2000, the CDC said.
Health officials worry about "multidrug-resistant" TB, which can withstand the mainline antibiotics isoniazid and rifampin. The man was infected with something even worse — "extensively drug-resistant" TB, also called XDR-TB, which resists many drugs used to treat the infection.
I wondeer if he has (had) any assets...Boy the lawyers are going to be out on this....
Kill him.
Did this idiot tell the person he was marrying of his condition? He’s lucky someone who he’s infected doesn’t put a bullet in his head and end the chances of infecting anyone else. That’s disease control!
I was wondering the same thing. This guy's an attorney, and he didn't see this coming? What an idiot. And he deserves every lawsuit he gets.
“Is the patient himself highly infectious? Fortunately, in this case, he’s probably not,” Gerberding said.
And you think this guy should be murdered? Nice.
He flew through a couple of countries with socialized medicine - yet he thought the best health care was in America....hmmmmm.
I guess he considers exposing people on his return flight cooperation. He deserves an @SS kickin'.
Well, in my defense, I do think he should be tortured first.
Good point. Paging Hillie and the rest of the 'Rats...
He LEFT the country with the best health care to fly around because he wanted to.
Then again, disease-ridden illegals come across the border unexamined every day. Sigh. My head hurts.
Maybe this will wake some people up about the serious problem of illegal immigration.
OK, folks. How did he get from Paris to Greece to Rome to the Czech Republic? While a car is techincally possible, it is highly unlikely. (Last few times I rented in Europe, there was a ban on taking the car into former east-bloc countries, for example).
Second question. How did the CDC track him down in Rome? Perhaps the CIA should be abolished and their functions put under the CDC.
This guy should be locked away or executed. That kind of crap is reckless in the extreme.
But the other piece is this bacteria is a very deadly bacteria. We just have to err on the side of caution.”
I said if he infected someone of the hundreds of people he came in contact with, I myself would harbor a bit of animosity towards someone knowing he had this still went out and mingled with the general public.
This is not a case of his being unaware of his condition it is a case of his not giving a s**t about his fellow man.
If not infectious why was he ordered into solitary confinement in Italy, put on the no-fly list and now in quarantine? I noticed you left out Gerberding’s recommendation!
“But the other piece is this bacteria is a very deadly bacteria. We just have to err on the side of caution.”
Do you think CDC knows how HE GOT THE DISEASE?
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