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APATLANTA (AP) - Health officials trying to stop a globetrotting honeymooner with a dangerous form of tuberculosis got little assistance from his lawyer father and his future father-in-law, a TB expert who not only balked at stopping the Greek wedding but went to the ceremony himself, according to e-mails obtained by The Associated Press.
Some of the 181 pages of e-mails, obtained through a public records request, suggest that the 31-year-old groom's father, Ted Speaker, was clipped and combative in phone conversations with health officials.
E-mails from Fulton County officials portray groom Andrew Speaker's father-in-law, CDC microbiologist Robert Cooksey, as disappointingly unhelpful, at least before May 22, when tests showed that Andrew Speaker had a more dangerous form of TB than previously understood.
"This is terrible news. I hope the father-in-law will be more forthcoming now," reads a May 22 e-mail written by Beverly DeVoe-Payton, director of the Georgia Division of Public Health's tuberculosis program, to other state health officials regarding the new test results.
He knew he had TB and that is was resistant to some drugs when he left Atlanta, but he didn't find out until he was in Europe that it was the highly dangerous form. When federal health officials eventually reached him by phone with the new test results, they warned him not to fly commercial aircraft, and urged him to turn himself in to local health officials. Instead, Speaker and his bride flew to Montreal, rented a car and drove across the U.S. border, even though officials had flagged his passport. He is now in a Denver hospital being treated.
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http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070612/D8PNDGF85.html