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.
Here in Pittsburgh, they track people. names go to the Feds.
Funny, I was going to include the NSLDS (National Student Loan.....) on an above post. I recently returned to school, and they’re making things difficult with a loan that I repaid TWENTY years ago!!!
Damn right it should!
But now they say it isn't transmitted by a casual interaction with the public. But if you sat two rows in front or behind him, well, that's not considered casual?
Now, we wait..
sw
Involuntarily, I hope.
OMG- I ordered something once, went to college, and just found out after my dad died that he paid for it 20+ years ago... Still have the records though.
The CDC still bears the responsibility here if the man is/was so dangerous. The man was obviously out in the public before he left the country and the CDC allowed it. NOW they’re playing CYA.
Something(s) about this story that don’t add up:
1) Did his fiance know about the TB?
2) Why all the trips to different places in Europe?
3) Is it really possible to feel good enough with this type of TB to want to go to a distant country to get married and then go on a honeymoon. If it is this deadly, why didn’t this guy feel terribly sick?
4) Why does he need to go to Denver for treatment?
5) How was he infected?
6) Have his co-workers been notified of possible infection?
Record Clubs are the biggest ripoffs known to man. I think they were dreamed up by a rich Prince in Nigeria...the one who needs some of your money to free up tons of his.
"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he told the paper.
Also an arrogant SOB; the world revolves around him and he can put hundreds at risk because of his megalomania.
Why isn't he being prosecuted? Why isn't he being identified?
His actions were premeditated and, if anyone comes down with his disease, he will certainly be a former "very well educated, successful intelligent person"...
LOL!
I don't often agree with you, but...
Nothing personal assumed.
But enjoyment of good science fiction does demand a few requisites.
We rabble have to have some fun, occasionally too!
At the expense of a delusional criminal megalomaniac seems to fit the bill.
That is what I have wondered also.
The guy is a dual citizen from Russia, but I wonder on his choice of honeymoon spots.
According to this Italian news report:
"The infected patient flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12, arriving May 13 on Air France Flight 385. The next day, he traveled on Air France Flight 1232 from Paris to Athens, one of 152 passengers. He remained in Greece until May 21, said Yiannis Pieroutsakos, director of the Greek Center for the Control and Prevention of Diseases. He then traveled to Rome, where he stayed until leaving for Prague on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 727, airline spokeswoman Daniela Hupakova said. Later on May 24, he took Czech Air Flight 410 from Prague to Montreal, then drove into the United States, according to the CDC. Meanwhile, Air France-KLM has been asked by French health authorities to provide lists of all passengers seated within two rows of the infected man, a spokeswoman said. She said that Air France uses high-efficiency particulate air filters on its planes, which mean that 50 percent of the air circulating is new and 50 percent is recycled. French health officials said they would give a passenger list of the May 13 flight to their counterparts abroad - leaving it to them to decide how to inform passengers from their countries. Pieroutsakos, the Greek health official, said the U.S. Embassy in Athens alerted Greek authorities about the man only after he had left. He said Greek officials were ``obviously watching this closely.'' Tuberculosis usually affects the lungs, and can lead to symptoms such as chest pain and coughing up blood. Caused by germs that are spread from person to person through the air, it kills nearly 2 million people each year around the world. The man in question is believed to have the rare and ``extensively drug-resistant'' TB - or XDR-TB - which does not respond to at least three of six classes of second-line drugs."
Correct. He chose this. Forget about his anonymity...let's get his name out there.
He also showed how easy it is for someone on the no-fly list to get into the country.
Gay and stupid!
Somehow I think passengers on those flights probably have already figured it out.
They quarantined him after his trip. Apparently he was the same as before. It doesn't seem that anything had changed. Maybe CDC got new info or discovered that they'd blown it by NOT quarantining him. And there's this little gem in the article : But Gerberding noted that U.S. health officials have had little experience with the "extensively drug-resistant" form.
I think they're playing CYA and letting this guy get slammed for their mistake.
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