Posted on 05/30/2007 8:43:23 AM PDT by george76
A man diagnosed with a rare strain of tuberculosis will be flown to Denver for treatment at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center.
This morning, officials at Denver’s National Jewish Medical and Research Center weren’t sure when the now world-famous TB patient would arrive for treatment.
"I think they’re still figuring out how he’s going to get here," said hospital spokesman William Allstetter. The unidentified patient was transferred from New York to Atlanta on a CDC airplane.
Allstetter stressed that National Jewish, which is world renown for treatment of respiratory and immune disorders, is well-prepared to handle the case.
"We treat about a half dozen very drug-resistant TB cases a year," Allstetter said. "The doctors know how to take care and isolate people and we’ve never had any trouble with people contracting that disease (from a TB patient like the Atlanta-area man)."
The patient will be treated in a isolation ward that’s specially pressurized so air only flows into that the room, he said. Air within the room is pumped through a filter where ultra violet light kills any airborne bacteria.
(Excerpt) Read more at rockymountainnews.com ...
Dr. Gerberding was asked if the patient is an American citizen.
She says he's a citizen of Georgia.
Okaaaay.
FWIW, I hope someone gets some clarification on that point.
Seems fishy.
Maybe part of the honey moon ?
Think I read that he was originally from Russia.
He was on a do not fly list in the US. He got out of the US because he is not on France's or CZK's or Can's list, but had to find a new way home.
Thanks.
He knew that was doing wrong ?
Yes and turned himself in as soon as he got to NY. That is being reported on Atlanta radio.
I’ve been told the cost of treating a single case of TB is in excess of 100K? How many cases a year come in illegally?
Sigh...YES.
He’s from Georgia.
I hope he doesn’t make it. We don’t need more of this guy’s genes in the pool. The selfishness here is beyond comprehension. If you could crawl inside this guys head you’d see it’s all about “me” and money. He didn’t want to cancel his wedding plans last minute and lose his money; since the costs of treating this can reach $1.2M he was getting home regardless of the risk to others so he could get his treatment for free. Just a pathetic piece of crap human being.
LBT
......
The person who ought to be worried is this turd's new bride. Sheesh.
This guy seems like a big loser.
National Jewish is good, but neither Atlanta nor New York City has a hospital that could handle him ?
The article mentions nothing about being on the no fly list until he was in Europe. They did NOT want him to fly home. They wanted him quarantined in Italy, where they located him.
While I can certainly understand not wanting to be treated for something so serious in a foreign country, the guy put people at risk in order to come home.
Yes, good. Put him in a crossroads for the country, centrally located.
Great plan for getting this stubborn pandemic thing rolling.
Couldn't git er done with SARS or Bird Flu, maybe TB is the ticket this time.
National Jewish is the best there is at TB and I’d say this guy’s chances don’t sound good.
Most cases of non-resistant TB (comprising the vast majority of all cases) respond to one or a combination of of three antibiotics: rifampin, isoniazid, and pyrazididamine. Such cases are relatively inexpensive to treat (typically less than $1000). If the TB strain is resistant to rifampin and isoniazid, then treatment can be *very* expensive and long-run prognosis is poor.
On the news this morning it said that of 53 cases in the late 90’s in South Africa 52 were dead within a month.
On May 25, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) was notified by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about a US citizen, recently diagnosed with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), who arrived in Montreal on a flight from Prague, Czech Republic, and then drove to the US via the Champlain, New York, border crossing.
The individual is now in contact with CDC officials and is in a U.S. hospital undergoing further evaluation.
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/media/advisories_avis/tb_e.html
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