[Infowarrior] - US travellers possibly exposed to drug-proof TB

[Richard Forno]

Travelers possibly exposed to drug-proof TB
Infected man flew from Prague to U.S.; authorities seeking those on flight
    
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18923867/

A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been
placed in quarantine by the U.S. government after possibly exposing
passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health
officials said Tuesday.

This marks the first time since 1963 that the government issued a quarantine
order. The last such order was to quarantine a patient with smallpox,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC urged people on the same flights to get checked for tuberculosis.
Story continues below ↓advertisement

The infected man flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France
Flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight
104 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the United States.

He cooperated with authorities after learning he had an unusually dangerous
form of TB. He voluntarily went to a hospital and is not facing prosecution,
officials said.

The man is hospitalized in Atlanta in respiratory isolation, according to
the World Health Organization.

He was potentially infectious at the time of the flights, so CDC officials
recommended medical exams for cabin crew members on those flights, as well
as passengers sitting in the same rows or within two rows.

The man was infected with “extensively drug-resistant” TB, also called
XDR-TB. It resists many drugs used to treat the infection. Last year, there
were two U.S. cases of that strain.

Because of antibiotics and other measures, the TB rate in the United States
has been falling for years. Last year, it hit an all-time low of 13,767
cases, or about 4.6 cases per 100,000 Americans.

Tuberculosis kills nearly 2 million people each year worldwide.