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.
And you think this guy should be murdered? Nice.
Well, in my defense, I do think he should be tortured first.
LOL!!!
You're right.
I've never once called for his entire family to be rounded up and slaughtered.
Well, until now, that is.
And homeland security should be put under the IRS. ;)
EhNjooEh.
MooseMooseHockeyBeer.
We have been letting people infected with AIDS run around freely for about 25 years now. As far as I know they don’t even have to register with the dept. of health and these departments are forbidden by law to even try and track them. It takes a little more effort to contract AIDS of course but given the slavish devotion to “fairness” exhibited by our “leaders” why not let this guy move around freely?
No - I am not serious.
Well, maybe a little.
Won't need to;
the TB will take care of that for us.
It sounds like "Me n'joo, joo know? Boaf of us."
His name and photo should be posted, and all people who have been in contact with him should be tested.
All they need to do is sign him up for Columbia House record club. Those bastards could track him down anywhere.
NO! - not the dreaded 'panties on the head' treatment ?
:)
Excellent! ROFLMAO!
I'd guess, few if anyone has been infected by this moroon.
And only feed him cold porridge.
"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person,"..."I've co-operated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing."
Yeah, real intelligent.
Is that him?
How much do you want to bet that he’s one of the America-bashing soft liberals that thinks Europe is utopia and that socialized medicine (Hillary’s scheme) is a great idea?
Depends on if HE knew if he was contagious or not. If he did, then that is attempted murder. Kill him.
2. What kind of weirdo must he be to marry a weirdo?
3. Last and not least: How'd he get this TB bug in the first place?
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