I’ve read about extensively-drug-resistant tuberculosis before. Now we have a patient who has been quarantined because he flew from North America to Europe and back in violation of a no-fly order and the advice of the CDC.
AP via Houston Chronicle:
ATLANTA — 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.
What is XDR TB?
NPR: CDC Issues Quarantine Over Tuberculosis Case
All Things Considered, May 29, 2007 · The CDC has placed a Georgia man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis under quarantine, the first time a quarantine order has been issued in the United States since 1963. Authorities say the man may have exposed passengers and crew aboard two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month. Robert Siegel talks with CDC Director Julie Gerberding.
Before he flew from the US to Europe, he did not know exactly what kind of TB he had and county health officials advised him not to travel. While he was in Europe, it became clear what type he had.
AP via New York Times:
The government issued the order after a CDC official reached the man by phone in Italy and told him not to take commercial flights, but he flew back to North America anyway, said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC’s division of global migration and quarantine.
”He was told in no uncertain terms not to take a flight back,” Cetron said.
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 0104 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the United States.