The "j" is probably silent.
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.
Something would be terrorists are probably more then aware of given our "strict" [sarcasm] boarder control. Scary stuff.
We should spin this.
The man could have gotten health care in France and Canada, the two nations praised by the left, but was terrified that he would die if he did that.
So he instead undertook drastic measures to be treated in the one country he was sure could help him.
Sounds like you want it to be all the CDC’s fault. I haven’t read everything, but maybe the CDC didn’t know until they found out this guy split that he was a drug resistant case. Frankly, I think there is something wrong with the law if they can’t quarantine people with deadly contagious diseases when they are identified. But I think people are afraid it’s a slippery slope.
Thanks. I was suspecting that there were additional, unlisted flights involved.
Such a rule would be politically incorrect, as it would disproportionately target homosexuals.
Man with rare TB crossed border at Champlain
The government issued the order after a CDC official reached the man by phone in Italy and told him not to take commercial flights,
They only quarantined him after he left the country. If anyone in a foreign country where he was becomes sick, the CDC will be blamed. This is CYA. If he was infectious and it can't be treated, he can be quarantined as they have now done. In other words, I think they quarantined him because of the foreign issue but he was ok to allow loose here. Sounds like politics.
Actually, "they" don't have a clue.
The reason this thing is so drug-resistant to multiple drugs is that it's a ... mutation of a mutation. Thats why it doesn't fit with any of the drugs now. It's outer coat doesn't match the pattern for the drugs anymore. If it was simply one drug that didn't fit, it'd be a mutation but if it doesn't respond to multiple drugs, its mutated a couple or more times.
If that's the case, the feds and nobody else on God's green Earth have ANY idea what this thing can do.
Godspeed
What an idiot, doesn't he know he should go to Cuba to get the best treatment in the world?
As I recall there was one super stud guy stewdress that spread aids clear around the world, possibly even indirectly infected Rock Hudson before the CDC even knew what AIDS was. But that could be an urban myth.
1: Why didn’t he sneak into Cuba? Everyone knows health care is better in Cuba.
2: Everyone has their panties in a wad over the Mexican border, yet someone on a no-fly list can waltz right in through Canada?
Hmmmm,
Atlanta to Paris
Paris to Athens
Athins to Rome
Rome to Prague
Prague to Montreal
Montreal back to the US.
All that travel and they still do not name or provide a picture of this individual. Makes me wonder if he is a muzzie timed release suicide bomber.
Also; where did HE get this?
Another question/issue I am wondering about as well. Seems they think Doctors REALLY gave him THE Big warning. . .OTOH. . .why not more follow-up here and stories more in synch.
So far. ..it is . . .'they said. . .he said. . '.
Where did he get it? Good question. This drug-resistant TB is a disease of gay men with AIDS. He must be AC-DC.
Putting all the blame on the man doesn’t sit well with me. They only panicked when he travelled. If he was contagious, he should have been quarantined to begin with. This is the CDCs mess.
The "j" is probably silent.
So it’s likely Noo or New? Or possibly Nyew, as some Yanks say? :)
Thanks!
Interesting & scary. I found out through other news outlets that his 32 years old. Some others have been reporting he is a US citizen of Russian origins. He also flew on Olympic Airlines to the Greek island of Kyra on May 16, returned to Athens from Mykonos on May 21, and traveled on to Rome the same day.
Well. . .IMHO it all does sound a little more than just 'inconsiderate'; though seems things could have been a little more 'clear-cut'. He certainly knew coming back was a risk; not just to himself; but perhaps others as well.
Meantime. . .WHERE is his wife? Hiding in Greece?
A lot going on here; not to mention; how long does he stay at Grady in quarantine. . .and how long does he remain the 'mystery TB man'. . .
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