CDC: 107 people on TB flights need tests

Autumn2004

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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 about 80 passengers who sat within five rows of him on two trans-Atlantic flights

Health officials said the man had been advised not to fly and knew he could expose others when he boarded the jets.

He flew to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385, also listed as Delta Air Lines codeshare Flight 8517. While he was 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.
The man told the Journal-Constitution he was in Rome during his honeymoon when the CDC notified him of the new tests and 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.


"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 newspaper he and his wife decided to sneak back into the U.S. through 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.


"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 cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary-confinement-in-Italy thing."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070530/ap_on_he_me/tuberculosis_infection


OK this makes me mad. Why isnt he being prosecuted, he knowingly could have infected many other people with this very dangerous form of tb and tried to outsmart the US government. I cant believe he is shocked he has an armed guard outside his door. Selfish pig of a man who didnt care who he had exposed and put himself above everyone else. What if kids were exposed or someone with a compromised immune system? I dont usually wish bad on others but with him honestly it would be just since he didnt think about anyone else but himself.
 
This is what happens when you put political correctness above public health.

On another thread people are boo-hooing that gay men are not allowed to donate blood. Never mind that other huge classes of other people are also not allowed to donate...people who have lived in the UK for any length of time (mad cow)..I had a coworker who was not allowed to donate because she had received accupuncture in Australia 10+ years previously. It's the public blood supply, and apparently those in charge feel it is judicious to be that picky.

It's not about homophobia, it's about protecting the public. Do you know that not only is there hepatitis A and B and C out there but also G and H...What about the viruses that haven't been discovered yet?

Which populations do you think will be the first to show these new viruses? That's exactly why they're not allowed to donate. It's statistics, not discrimination. And if we lived in Africa, maybe the populations denied to donate would be different because their patterns of transmission appear different.
 
I totally agree with you! This makes my blood boil. Another article reports that the patient claims the doctors didn't tell him not to fly. That's total BS. The CDC says he was told not to fly, and he disregarded the warning because he didn't want to put off his wedding. What a self-centered jerk. Plus, he was exposing his wife to the risk of this disease the whole time, too! Nice guy.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/05/30/tb.flight/index.html


"The Fulton County folks gave him a verbal warning of the danger and the prohibition against travel on May 11," Brown said, noting that the patient's reaction set off some alarm bells.
"They were so concerned by his interaction in this discussion that they went back and hand-delivered a letter reiterating that he remain isolated and not travel," Brown said, adding that at that time, "a plan of treatment was put together."
However, when they arrived to deliver the letter later that day, he had already left, Brown said."
 
This also made me mad. He knew he wasn't supposed to fly, but ignored orders? Hello??? Intelligent, maybe. Common sense? NONE!!!!!!!:hand:
 
if he was so well educated, successful and intelligent... he would know better than to 'sneak' back into the states. sounds like a dumbass to me... now we can see how things like the bird flu will spread.
 
I totally agree with you! This makes my blood boil. Another article reports that the patient claims the doctors didn't tell him not to fly. That's total BS. The CDC says he was told not to fly, and he disregarded the warning because he didn't want to put off his wedding. What a self-centered jerk. Plus, he was exposing his wife to the risk of this disease the whole time, too! Nice guy.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/05/30/tb.flight/index.html


"The Fulton County folks gave him a verbal warning of the danger and the prohibition against travel on May 11," Brown said, noting that the patient's reaction set off some alarm bells.
"They were so concerned by his interaction in this discussion that they went back and hand-delivered a letter reiterating that he remain isolated and not travel," Brown said, adding that at that time, "a plan of treatment was put together."
However, when they arrived to deliver the letter later that day, he had already left, Brown said."

I would be ready to ring his neck, were he not infectious, if he had exposed me but especially my child or other family members to TB!

And I would most definitely sue him if I were contacted by the CDC and told I had to take a TB test. In my mind this is as bad as a person who knows they have AIDS or hepatitis having unprotected sex with people. Except the people this jerk exposed couldn't choose not to share the same air with him! :furious:
 
I would be ready to ring his neck, were he not infectious, if he had exposed me but especially my child or other family members to TB!

And I would most definitely sue him if I were contacted by the CDC and told I had to take a TB test. In my mind this is as bad as a person who knows they have AIDS or hepatitis having unprotected sex with people. Except the people this jerk exposed couldn't choose not to share the same air with him! :furious:
I agree.
 
I expect if this selfish-*advertiser censored* clown survives, he will be sued into oblivion by people he may have infected and definitely exposed, not to mention have to answer to some government charges....I sure hope so. He deserves it all.
 
This is what happens when you put political correctness above public health.

On another thread people are boo-hooing that gay men are not allowed to donate blood. Never mind that other huge classes of other people are also not allowed to donate...people who have lived in the UK for any length of time (mad cow)..I had a coworker who was not allowed to donate because she had received accupuncture in Australia 10+ years previously. It's the public blood supply, and apparently those in charge feel it is judicious to be that picky.

It's not about homophobia, it's about protecting the public. Do you know that not only is there hepatitis A and B and C out there but also G and H...What about the viruses that haven't been discovered yet?

Which populations do you think will be the first to show these new viruses? That's exactly why they're not allowed to donate. It's statistics, not discrimination. And if we lived in Africa, maybe the populations denied to donate would be different because their patterns of transmission appear different.

Huh? How is this realated to the guy with TB, was he trying to give blood? Homopobia and populations with new viruses? Did you mean to post this on a different thread?
 
if he was so well educated, successful and intelligent... he would know better than to 'sneak' back into the states. sounds like a dumbass to me... now we can see how things like the bird flu will spread.

DITTO. I think that he should ABSOLUTELY be prosecuted.
 
CNN just mentioned that the guy is an attorney. Wonder if that will cause anyone to file a suit against him.
 
Huh? How is this realated to the guy with TB, was he trying to give blood? Homophobia and populations with new viruses? Did you mean to post this on a different thread?

There appears to be some sort of reading comprehension problem: not only is she ranting in the wrong thread, she has mischaracterized the other thread as well.

Nobody "boohooed" the ban on gays donating blood. There was a perfectly reasonable discussion on whether banning all gays was the best way to both protect the blood supply and ensure an adequate supply.
 
There appears to be some sort of reading comprehension problem: not only is she ranting in the wrong thread, she has mischaracterized the other thread as well.

Nobody "boohooed" the ban on gays donating blood. There was a perfectly reasonable discussion on whether banning all gays was the best way to both protect the blood supply and ensure an adequate supply.

That's what I thought happened. :waitasec:
 
Here's another article on it-

What if, they ask, the now-quarantined man had carried not hard-to-spread tuberculosis but something very contagious like the next super-flu?

Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., said the case "shows that something is wrong with the training and supervision of our border agents. We put all this time and effort into identifying those who shouldn't enter our country, but what good is it if it can be brushed aside by a border guard? I shudder to think that this individual could have been a terrorist."


Border security isn't the only issue. While the man now is cooperating with CDC investigators, he remains in federally ordered isolation, in a guarded room in an Atlanta hospital. His identity is being withheld to protect his privacy.


But the nation's quarantine laws are so outdated that if the TB traveler challenged that order, "he would probably win in court," warned Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University who has advised the CDC's ongoing effort to update those laws.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070530/ap_on_re_us/disease_at_the_border

With him being an attorney you can bet he knows the loopholes to get out of it. What a slimeball :furious:
 
Here is an interesting article that tells more of his side of the story. While I would be freaking out if I had been on one of those planes, and I do think he put people at risk, I also think there is more to this story.

If I had been told that the place in Denver (where he was supposed to go after his honeymoon) was the only place I could get treatment to save my life, I'm not sure I would have stayed in Italy either.

http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/2007/05/29/0530meshtb.html?imw=Y


The globe-trotting tale of the man, his fiancee, their wedding and honeymoon abroad — and conflicting recollections of what he was told about his disease and whether he could travel — culminated Tuesday with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issuing an international health alert.

<snip>

"I didn't want to put anybody at risk," the Fulton County man, who declined to be identified because of the stigma attached to his diagnosis, said in a telephone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "We just wanted to come home and get treatment."

Since January the man, who said he has no symptoms and feels healthy, has met regularly for treatment with Fulton County health officials. He said they and CDC knew he had drug-resistant TB before he left the United States but did not prohibit him from leaving when he told them about his upcoming wedding in Greece.

He questioned why nobody told him to cancel his wedding before he left Atlanta &#8212; and why the CDC waited until he was on his honeymoon in Rome to order him into isolation.

"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he said. "This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary confinement in Italy thing."

At a news conference Tuesday, CDC Director Julie Gerberding announced that the agency had taken the rare action of issuing a federal public health isolation order against the man, which allows the CDC to hold people against their will to protect the public. Gerberding believes the isolation order was last used in 1963 in a case involving a potential smallpox exposure.

<snip>

CDC officials note that air travel carries a relatively low risk of infection with TB of any kind.

<snip>

Gerberding and CDC officials gave few details about what prompted the issuance of a federal isolation order, other than saying the "covenent of trust" had been breached. "In this case the patient had a compelling personal reason for traveling," she said, noting that the man broke no laws in his travels.

The man at the center of the international health incident said his TB ordeal began in January. Because he has felt healthy, the disease was detected by accident, during a chest X-ray for something else. It uncovered a small mass in one lobe of his lung. A sputum test came back negative for TB, but a more sensitive culture test confirmed the diagnosis.

"So they started putting me on the standard four-drug treatment," he said. And they tested his fianc&#233;e and other close contacts for the disease: None of them had it.

But it turned out his TB was resistant to the first-line drugs &#8212; and the second-line drugs. So county officials stopped treatment. The man said he and his private doctor &#8212; with the agreement of government health officials &#8212; made plans for him to undergo cutting-edge treatment with specialists at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver after his honeymoon.

The treatment will involve surgical removal of the mass coupled with drugs to kill the infections. The man said he's been told the course of treatment could take 18 months &#8212; and that the only place that can do it is the Denver hospital.

"The county health department knew I was going over to have a honeymoon. We had a meeting before I left," the man said. He acknowledges that the health department told him they "preferred" that he not to travel. But reluctant to cancel his long-planned wedding, the man said he asked what does "prefer" mean? Does it mean I can't, the man asked.

But even when health officials were quizzed, the TB patient said they never told him he couldn't travel. He told officials he'd be going ahead with his wedding and noted that they didn't tell him to take any precautions, even around close family and friends.

"We headed off to Greece thinking everything's fine," he said. He said he contacted the AJC to make sure his side of the story was heard.

Dr. Steven Katkowsky, director of public health and wellness for Fulton County, said it's his understanding that the man was "advised not to travel."

<snip>

The man says he and his bride were in Rome on their honeymoon when they got a message to call the CDC. The CDC official said that they needed to cancel their trip and return home and that the CDC would call the next day with travel information.

The patient says he and his wife canceled plans to move on to Florence the next day as they awaited the CDC's instructions.

The next day, instead of giving the couple travel arrangements, the man said a CDC staff member told him he'd need to turn himself into Italian health authorities the next morning and agree to go into isolation and treatment in that country for an indefinite period of time.

"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.

The man said the CDC told him he could not fly aboard a commercial airliner with his disease. "We asked about the CDC jet and they said no, there wasn't funding in the budget to use the jet," he said.

<snip>

He said he called the CDC when he was back in the U.S. and agreed to the agency's request to drive first to a TB isolation hospital in New York City for some tests. That's where federal officials served him with the federal isolation order, he said. The agency ultimately flew him Monday on the CDC jet to Atlanta.

The patient is now in an isolation ward at Grady Memorial Hospital, said spokeswoman Denise Simpson.

The man said he wants people to understand he sneaked back into the United States because he feared for his life. An unsuccessful treatment in Italy would have doomed him, he said, because he said they lacked the expertise.
 
:furious:
I would be ready to ring his neck, were he not infectious, if he had exposed me but especially my child or other family members to TB!

And I would most definitely sue him if I were contacted by the CDC and told I had to take a TB test. In my mind this is as bad as a person who knows they have AIDS or hepatitis having unprotected sex with people. Except the people this jerk exposed couldn't choose not to share the same air with him! :furious:

I sooooooo agree--- my dh was in the Atlanta airport that day- makes ya go :furious: :furious:
how dare he......how fricking dare he....did I say--- how *advertiser censored***ing dare he????
 
Here is an interesting article that tells more of his side of the story. While I would be freaking out if I had been on one of those planes, and I do think he put people at risk, I also think there is more to this story.

The man said he wants people to understand he sneaked back into the United States because he feared for his life. An unsuccessful treatment in Italy would have doomed him, he said, because he said they lacked the expertise.

way snipped by j2m

if he feared for his life---- why did he leave the states to begin with, when they advised him not to??? :waitasec: I agree there are always 2 sides to a story- but I am not buying his -
 
way snipped by j2m

if he feared for his life---- why did he leave the states to begin with, when they advised him not to??? :waitasec: I agree there are always 2 sides to a story- but I am not buying his -

But I don't think he realized the danger to others. They "advised him not to travel." They knew of his plans to get married in Greece and honeymoon in Italy; in fact, his plans for treatment in Denver were scheduled for after his honeymoon. So they knew he was going. No one told him not to go, just that they "preferred" he didn't.

For all he knew, it was for the sake of his health, not anyone else's. They had not told him to take any precautions around his family and friends, or even his fiancee. He felt fine and had continued about his normal life since January without them so much as reminding him to cover his mouth when he sneezed. No face masks, no gloves, nothing. My friend who is going through chemo has had more warning than this!

I'm not saying he was right to get on that plane and sneak back into the US, but I'm not sure what I would have done once I was already there. I really think someone at the CDC dropped the ball big time on this.

As far as the people on the planes and in the airports, the CDC is just covering their asses. If his fiancee isn't sick after being with him since January, a few hours on the plane with him is probably a very small risk. They are trying to generate another side of the story to deflect attention from their own screw up.
 
But I don't think he realized the danger to others. They "advised him not to travel." They knew of his plans to get married in Greece and honeymoon in Italy; in fact, his plans for treatment in Denver were scheduled for after his honeymoon. So they knew he was going. No one told him not to go, just that they "preferred" he didn't.

For all he knew, it was for the sake of his health, not anyone else's. They had not told him to take any precautions around his family and friends, or even his fiancee. He felt fine and had continued about his normal life since January without them so much as reminding him to cover his mouth when he sneezed. No face masks, no gloves, nothing. My friend who is going through chemo has had more warning than this!

I'm not saying he was right to get on that plane and sneak back into the US, but I'm not sure what I would have done once I was already there. I really think someone at the CDC dropped the ball big time on this.

As far as the people on the planes and in the airports, the CDC is just covering their asses. If his fiancee isn't sick after being with him since January, a few hours on the plane with him is probably a very small risk. They are trying to generate another side of the story to deflect attention from their own screw up.

you may have a point--- I will have to reread- and rethink this- but I still dont like it- ! :waitasec:
 
you may have a point--- I will have to reread- and rethink this- but I still dont like it- ! :waitasec:
The next day, instead of giving the couple travel arrangements, the man said a CDC staff member told him he'd need to turn himself into Italian health authorities the next morning and agree to go into isolation and treatment in that country for an indefinite period of time.

"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.

The man said the CDC told him he could not fly aboard a commercial airliner with his disease. "We asked about the CDC jet and they said no, there wasn't funding in the budget to use the jet," he said.


ok- this is the part that still really upsets me- I can maybe see his point, up, until this point
 

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