May 30, 2007
CDC Addresses TB Scare
The Center for Disease Control renewed its investigative efforts in earnest today, trying to track down any air passengers who may have been contaminated with tuberculosis bacteria by a Georgia man on two transatlantic flights in May. Yesterday, the CDC declared an isolation order -- the United States' first in over 40 years -- to prevent the spread of the drug-resistant strain.
CDC official Dr. Martin Cetron said today that the patient from Georgia will be moved to National Jewish Hospital in Denver, which specializes in respiratory infections. (He is still in isolation, Cetron said, but not in quarantine.) After he flew back from Montreal on May 24, the Georgia man was isolated in New York City and then hospitalized in Atlanta.
Cetron also said the investigation is concentrating on the two flights that lasted eight hours -- Air France 385 from Atlanta to Paris on May 13 and Czech Air Flight 0104 from Prague to Montreal on May 24 -- but the man did take five shorter flights within Europe. Transmission risk diminishes with shorter exposure times.
Fifty or 80 passengers on the two longer flights are in the most danger, and CDC officials are working on getting lists that will help them identify exactly where the man was sitting and the names and nationalities of the people seated near him. Cetron stressed that the investigation would be an international effort, since multiple countries are involved.
The CDC does have a complete list of all the flights that could have been contaminated, and concerned air travelers can call 1-800-CDC-INFO to get specific advice to "manage the risk," Cetron said. People who suspect they may have been exposed take an initial skin test to check for the disease and then a second test eight to 10 weeks later.
A tuberculosis expert at the CDC, Dr. Ken Castro, tried to reassure the public that drug-resistant tuberculosis is rarely passed from person to person in periods of short contact. Cetron re-emphasized that passengers on the short flights or other people who might have had contact with the infected man in the airports, for example, would not be at significant risk.
The officials also revealed a few more details about the logistics of the patient's travel, saying he had been advised not to fly but that no laws were broken when he did. Cetron said the CDC tried to track down the man in Rome, but he wasn't found until after his flight landed in Montreal and he had crossed back into the United States.
When a reporter asked about the public's right to be protected from the disease, Cetron cited the need for a balance between "individual freedoms and the public good," and said "the individual had a compelling interest from his own perspective" to go to Europe. He stressed that no legal order was issued to keep the patient from traveling.
Cetron declined to reveal the man's name or other details about him -- which Cetron said they "never do" -- but said he has been fully compliant and not broken any laws. He said the patient does exhibit some signs of pulmonary tuberculosis, but he doesn't have "overt symptoms of active, hectic cough or coughing up lots of sputum or blood" and the possibility of his infecting others is "on the lower end of the spectrum. It's certainly not zero.... The context of the pathogen he has is that the consequences of it being spread are quite high."
