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 agree. How can the CDC let someone who is that contagious travel international and not even inform the airlines or the countries he is flying to about what he has? Meanwhile in the process he is exposing I don't even know how many others to TB. Very scary.
Well, not necessarily in Atlanta. . .could be they shared a Marta train ride on a bad day. The possibilities are endless, (but seems whomever was the source should be in Grady right now; along side of him. . .or perhaps he is no longer 'here'.
That said. . .do we know for sure that he married a woman?
I am still amazed that it appears his identity can be 'contained'; while his disease has not been and is front page.
Likely.
;-)
They both flew to Rome on May 21st. Don't know if she is Rome being held somewhere or if they snuck her back in the States too.
LOL.
Twonie, Xenalyte asked for a "kind" Canadian to answer to her question. Why would you respond?
;-)
According to the news reports, the CDC didn’t know he had this drug resistant strain until he was in Europe. My understanding is that TB has been becoming more difficult to treat over the years because so many folks who have it are irresponsible and/or homeless and don’t do the proper drug regimen. This is part of an overall issue of the ACLU contingent vs. the public health.
Multidrug resistant TB is a strain of TB that cannot be cured with the most effective anti-TB medicines. Like all forms of TB, it is spread through the air. In 1991, New York City experienced an outbreak of MDR TB that eventually claimed more than 500 lives. Recently, an MDR TB outbreak in Russia has killed many more.
But illegal aliens aren’t really a problem. TB in Mexico is quite common yet our President and Senators don’t even consider the health risks to Americans.
he must have understood he was contagious, yet chose to deliberately expose others. 'Well educated, successful, intelligent' doesn't count - he's just cold-blooded selfish and irresponsible.
An armed guard outside his door is EXACTLY what he needs!
What nerve....what arrogance....!!!
I HOPE hundreds if not thousands find out who this self important buzzard is and sue his stigma to kingdom come!
If I had sat next to him, or worse...my child, baby or a pregnant lady .....
..I would want his name, the name of his family, where he lives, what he makes and the name of his bank!
He purposely endangered untold numbers of people.
The mystery of 'illness' deepens here. . .they offered on Fox News a while ago - could be error of course - that only two cases of this TB strain were noted in USA in past year (or two?). . .
Whatever; perhaps while this couple were making plans, scouting abroad for place to marry? Or, is this the 'hundreth monkey syndrome'; and it just appeared. . .synchronous, from somewhere else?
His wife and everyone else...(if they're lucky enough to find them in time) will be tested....and then tested again in 8 weeks.
No one....but no one is out of the woods on this!
Then why did they make a big deal out of claiming to tell him that he shouldn't fly? They made sure that was in the news so that their hands looked clean. If they didn't know, they would have been checking to see if the treatment was working. He would have been tested constantly. They knew.
I had a false positive for TB as a kid. I was checked constantly until it dawned on them that I'd never had it.
It may not be merely an urban myth. “Patient zero” is believed to have been a gay male flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas. A movie entitled “And the Band Played On” mentions Dugas extensively in its chronicling the discovery and spread of HIV and AIDS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetan_Dugas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Band_Played_On
Is that HIM? Easily remembered.
Number two...it stands to reason that the guy's wife has had the closest contact with this numbskull for probably longer than 10 weeks...and is testing PPD negative. Which leads me to believe chances are low that others have been infected.
If my logic is weak, please let me know.
PPD tests take 48 hrs to 72 hrs to get results...I am required to take one every year.
Yes, some that have been exposed will not test positive for up to 10 weeks...So, for safety sake..it's wise to have follow ups.
Which brings me full circle to this moroons wife.....Have they been together for longer than 10 weeks?? I would expect so......
BWDIK?? I'm a man, but I can change, If I have to....Maybe.
see post #43
Maybe he hadn't seen her in a while.....maybe she's been waiting in Europe for months, planning the wedding?
Why won't they give us answers?
When did this guy get infected, and how?
When did it come to their attention?
WHY didn't they remove him from the streets of Atlanta?
Nowadays, having TB isn't quite the stigma it use to be, if you get to a doctor right away...
..a couple, three shots and you're good to go....(someone WILL correct me if I'm wrong)
Also, WHEN did they alert the folks on the first plane...(cause they presumably started tracking this guy shortly after he left/flew away)
Why are we just now hearing about it...when they...the CDC...had to have known shortly after May 12th!!!!!!
It's May 30th....why are we just getting somewhat informed?
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