TB Patient told not to fly, but did anyway - may have spread deadly TB virus

hotballa · May 30, 2007

Just completely irresponsible. Worst case scenario, this guy does more damage than some terrorists could ever hope for with his irresponsible actions. What part of "you have a deadly, incurrable, infectious virus, so please don't go anywhere or you might infect others with it" do you not understand??

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/05/30/2007-05-30_tb_case_spurs_panic.html

TB case spurs panic

Patient told not to fly, but did anyway - docs fear deadly bug may spread

By JORDAN LITE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, May 30th 2007, 4:00 AM

A man with a rare and lethal form of TB was coaxed into an isolation unit of Bellevue Hospital after triggering a transatlantic scramble for people he may have infected, officials said yesterday.

The tuberculosis patient was ordered locked up - and then transferred by a special plane to an Atlanta hospital - because he ignored federal no-fly orders and twice boarded packed jumbo jets for flights between Europe and North America.

It was the first time since 1963 that the feds have ordered a person quarantined.

The Georgia man, who has not been identified, is infected with a mysterious strain with the ominous designation .XDR-TB - which stands for extensively drug-resistant TB. There is no known cure, and about half the people who get the bug die from it.

The international alarm was raised yesterday by Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who went on TV to ask anyone who was on Air France Flight 385 from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 or Czech Air Flight 0104 from Prague to Montreal on May 24 to be tested for TB. Gerberding said it was not clear how contagious the man was during his travel.

"If there is a risk, these are the kind of trips that could pose a risk of transmission," she said.

The man was told not to travel in early May, after he was diagnosed.

He left for Europe anyway.

He told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday that he went for his wedding and honeymoon.

CDC officials tracked him down in Rome and told him not to take a commercial flight home. Instead, they would send a plane for him so he would avoid contact with other passengers, Gerberding told National Public Radio.

"He was told in no uncertain terms not to take a flight back," said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration and quarantine.

The man, who asked the paper not to identify him, said he took the Prague-to-Montreal flight to avoid the CDC's no-fly restriction, but said, "I didn't want to put anyone at risk. We just .wanted to come home and get treatment."

After arriving in Montreal, he drove across the U.S. border and within a day of reentering the country was persuaded to turn himself in at Bellevue.

Health officials stressed the man did not pose a threat to New Yorkers because he drove himself to the hospital and did not interact with anyone other than medical professionals.

"We have no information to suggest anyone in New York City is at any risk," said Andrew Tucker, a spokesman for the city Health Department.

At Bellevue, the man was isolated for three days in a "highly specialized" TB unit where doctors and nurses expert in handling TB cases watched him around the clock. He was eventually flown in a CDC plane to Atlanta, where he was put in isolation.

He will not be charged with a crime, despite ignoring the no-fly orders. "No laws were broken here. This is a very complicated situation," Gerberding said. But the man still said he was upset with the way his situation has been handled.

"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."

XDR-TB is a strain of the bacterial infection that does not respond to typical first- and second-line antibiotics. It kills patients as often as half the time, said Dr. Bruce Polsky, chief of the infectious diseases division at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.

Some 49 cases have been reported in the U.S. since 1993.

"It's considered virtually untreatable," Polsky said.

But Gerberding said there are success stories.

"There are people who . . . survived and are considered to be disease-free," Gerberding said.
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DaDakota · May 30, 2007

I can see both sides here.....hopefully it is a happy ending for him...and he gets better.

DD

updawg · May 30, 2007

I don't really see the other side.
He's told he has a dangerous contagious disease and not to fly (I'm sure among other things) yet he decides to TWICE.

Selfish *******

hotballa · May 30, 2007

DaDakota said:

I can see both sides here.....hopefully it is a happy ending for him...and he gets better.

DD
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If I was in that situation, I would not want to risk infecting anyone else, my conscience wouldn't be able to take it. What if he sat next to a kid whose immune system isn't that strong yet?

Just completely irresponsible.

DaDakota · May 30, 2007

I understand, but this guy was on his honeymoon and marriage.....and we don't know if the virus was contagious or not, or even how he was feeling.

I think he was wrong, but man, I can understand him doing it...well at least the first part, but not the 2nd......

If he was told he had a private plane back, he should have taken advantage of that.

DD

macalu · May 30, 2007

DaDakota said:

I can see both sides here.....hopefully it is a happy ending for him...and he gets better.

DD
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i can see why that b**** didn't tell me she had HIV.

*ok, that never happened but you get my point.*

Dr of Dunk · May 30, 2007

I heard this yesterday when the story broke and all I could think was "what an idiot".

"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."
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This quote is laughable.

yuantian · May 30, 2007

DaDakota said:

I understand, but this guy was on his honeymoon and marriage.....and we don't know if the virus was contagious or not, or even how he was feeling.

I think he was wrong, but man, I can understand him doing it...well at least the first part, but not the 2nd......

If he was told he had a private plane back, he should have taken advantage of that.

DD
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TB is not contagious? i thought if you coughed on someone, that'll do it

jcantu · May 30, 2007

TB is a bacteria, not a virus. Huge difference

In Houston, we are exposed to TB all the time (in supermarkets, hospitals, movie theatres, etc...) The amount of contact required is extensive and it is not "easily" transmitted.

Still, this was a stupid thing for the guy to do.

DonkeyMagic · May 30, 2007

jcantu said:

TB is a bacteria, not a virus. Huge difference

In Houston, we are exposed to TB all the time (in supermarkets, hospitals, movie theatres, etc...) The amount of contact required is extensive and it is not "easily" transmitted.

Still, this was a stupid thing for the guy to do.
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yup, alot of people do have tb its just not an active strand.

as for the dude flying...i guess as long as he does what he wants to do its ok to put other people in danger

dookiester · May 30, 2007

"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person."

as long as you say it, it must be true.

underoverup · May 30, 2007

how dangerous he may have spread this rare strain of tb across two continents. sounds very intelligent to me...........................

Achilleus · May 30, 2007

"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person,"
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...and Doggone It, People Like Me!

hotballa · May 30, 2007

from a CNN article about it. The man claims health officials were ok with him leaving and flying to Europe. A completely silly claim, no doctor in their right mind would tell him it was ok given the potential danger.

Health officials determined the man had a multiple-drug resistant form of TB on May 11, a day before he left for Paris, Dr. Stuart Brown, director of Georgia's Division of Public Health, told CNN.

He had met with county health officials and his doctors that same day to discuss his risk, Brown said.

"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.
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Ottomaton · May 30, 2007

Typhoid Mary

Invisible Fan · May 30, 2007

Shouldn't Homeland Security have prevented this from happening?

I thought they did background checks and the whole nine on everyone. The CDC could've put a restriction on him or something...

If the man is going to die, then I could understand why he did it to get home. It doesn't excuse his selfishness...

hotballa · May 30, 2007

Invisible Fan said:

Shouldn't Homeland Security have prevented this from happening?

I thought they did background checks and the whole nine on everyone. The CDC could've put a restriction on him or something...

If the man is going to die, then I could understand why he did it to get home. It doesn't excuse his selfishness...
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he was informed of his sickness before he left for Europe.

CDC sent a plane to Italy for his return trip, but he took a commerical liner to Canada because he wasn't allowed to fly into U.S.A. due to CDC putting his name on a do not fly list, and then drove to America from Montreal.

Aceshigh7 · May 30, 2007

The mother****er needs to be charged. What he did was ****ing bull****.

Invisible Fan · May 30, 2007

hotballa said:

he was informed of his sickness before he left for Europe.

CDC sent a plane to Italy for his return trip, but he took a commerical liner to Canada because he wasn't allowed to fly into U.S.A. due to CDC putting his name on a do not fly list, and then drove to America from Montreal.
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I missed reading that.

I have no idea what a dying man would think or how he'd react.

It's easy to judge the guy, but drug resistant strains are a product of people who abuse and misuse antibiotics. Maybe he's a victim of general human related selfishness and stupidity...

Lil Pun · May 31, 2007

He was identified today as lawyer Andrew Speaker.

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