Posted on 05/29/2007 11:45:37 AM PDT by Pyro7480
A man with a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis may have spread the disease to passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, federal health officials said Tuesday.
Centers for Disease Control officials on Tuesday released information about the passenger, and called for people on the same flights to get checked for the infection.
The infected patient traveled on two trans-Atlantic air flights and in doing so, may have exposed passengers and crew to the infection.
The patient flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12, arriving on May 13, on Air France Flight 385. He returned to the United States on May 24, on Czech Air Flight 410, from Prague to Montreal.
The man then drove into the United States. He is hospitalized, in respiratory isolation, according to the World Health Organization.
He was potentially infectious at the time of the flights to and from Europe, and so CDC officials are recommending medical evaluation of cabin crew members on those flights as well as passengers sitting in the same rows as the man or two roses in front or behind, according to the World Health Organization.
Tuberculosis is a disease caused by germs that are spread from person to person through the air. The disease usually affects the lungs, and can lead to symptoms such as chest pain and coughing up blood. Globally, it kills nearly 2 million people each year.
Thanks to antibiotics and other measures, the TB rate in the United States has been falling for years. Last year, it hit an all-time low -- a total of 13,767 cases, or about 4.6 cases per 100,000 Americans.
But health officials worry about "multidrug-resistant" TB, which can withstand the mainline antibiotics isoniazid and rifampin. About 1.2 percent of U.S. TB cases fall into that category, according to CDC statistics.
A more rare, even-worse category of "extensively drug-resistant" TB -- or XDR-TB -- does not respond to at least three of six classes of second-line drugs. Last year, there were two U.S. cases of that infection.
Medical treatment of just one case of XDR-TB can cost $500,000 or more, CDC officials say.
Whopee. Some people get to sue the airline, and I hope they sue their pants off. We are entitled to know who this infectious creature is, where he lives, and who else might have been in contact with him.
I don’t know why the gooberment is having such a fit over this. They let thousands of illegals cross the border each year with TB and other nasty diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, plague, leprosy, malaria, and viral hemorrhagic fevers
Now a Fox News Alert.
probably with AIDS too
Great. Now instead of just being strip-searched, we'll have to undergo a full health screening every time we want to get on a plane.
How is the airline supposed to know if a passenger has TB or AIDS. Relatives can't even get that information without a court order.
For 10 years there has been a long, ugly, ongoing fight about allowing people infected with AIDS to immigrate here, and to visit here. So far, as far as I know, the AIDS victims are winning and cannot be barred from immigrating here, under “family reunification,” the annual immigration and H1B, regardless of how advanced their disease is.
It is Bush’s fault! Close the border! TB was gone in the US before the border was thrown open.
Only when you return from an oversees trip. The hell that is Customs and Immigration at the Houston and Miami airports is about to become more hellish, but what the hell are we supposed to do?
You overlook the possibility of a trojan horse of the bio weapon kind. Some turd either knowingly or by other means flies in a brings with him/her a plague of some sorts.
They cannot take over planes anymore or smuggle in small nukes but a host of viral weapons can be brought in live.
Kind of scary.
That's just doing the job that Americans won't do. Remember we are a nation of immigrants who brought in new European diseases to the Western hemisphere.
Although I may have missed it I didn't see anything in this piece to suggest that the airline(s) involved knew of the passenger's health status.
Right now, I can assure you that he lives in a special hospital room with a high tech ventilation/filtering system and two-stage entry system, and is attended to by workers in disposable hazard suits.
Where he lived before his diagnosis is another story, but he sure got around a lot.
If it was in the article, I missed it. Is the guy American? He’s in the hospital in the US, but his travel originated in Atlanta, he flew to Paris, ended up in Praque and flew back to Montreal, then drove to the US. Sort of a strange travel pattern.
Diversion?
When did that ever stop a lawsuit? When did that ever discourage a member of the bar? I predict they will not only sue Air France, they will sue their travel agents or online ticket providers. Never underestimate the ability of a lawyer to sniff out a tort.
Are any cities closed due to Black Plague?
They are only taking flights that other Americans refuse to take.
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