American with Rare TB now in Quarantine after Exposing Many on Airplane

[Guest guest]

[What a nice guy! Putting innocent people at risk by disobeying

orders not to travel.]

Traveler with rare TB under federal quarantine

Infected man flew to get married; authorities seeking other

passengers

Updated: 19 minutes ago

ATLANTA - A man with a form of tuberculosis so dangerous he is under

the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963 had health

officials around the world scrambling Wednesday to find passengers

who sat near him on two trans-Atlantic flights.

The man told a newspaper he took the first flight from Atlanta to

Europe for his wedding, then the second flight home because he

feared he might die without treatment in the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Gerberding

said Wednesday that the CDC is working closely with airlines to find

passengers who may have been exposed to the rare, dangerous strain.

Health officials in France said they have asked Air France-KLM for

passenger lists, and the Italian Health Ministry said it is tracing

the man's movements.

<snip>

Health officials said the man had been advised not to fly and knew

he could expose others when he boarded the jets from Atlanta to

Paris, and later from Prague to Montreal.

<snip>

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 Champlain,

N.Y. 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.

<snip>

Full story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18936405/