US probes how TB traveler crossed border

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Last updated May 30, 2007 5:15 p.m. PT

US probes how TB traveler crossed border

By LAURAN NEERGAARD AND DEVLIN BARRETT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS

WASHINGTON -- The government is investigating how a globe-
trotting tuberculosis patient drove back into the country even
after his name was put on a no-fly list provide to border guards.
The failure exposed a major gap in a system that is supposed to
keep the direst of diseases from crossing borders.

But the communications breakdown at a U.S.-Canada border
crossing was only one of a series of missed opportunities to
catch the Atlanta man and his wife who seemed determined to
elude health officials.

And worried infection specialists say it shows how vulnerable
the nation is, from outdated quarantine laws and the speed of
international flight, to killer germs carried by travelers. What
if, they ask, the now-quarantined man had carried not hard-to-
spread tuberculosis but something very contagious like the next
super-flu?

-snip-

The man has a rare but exceptionally dangerous form of TB, a
type that international health authorities are desperate to curb
because it is untreatable by most medications. The CDC was a
step, or more, behind the man on his six-country odyssey. His
name didn't get on the no-fly list until he apparently already
was en route to Canada, Cetron said.

-snip-

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Disease_at_the_Border.html

---

Related threads:
Air passengers possibly exposed to rare form of TB are sought
U.S. isolates traveler infected with super-TB

[kurth]

1. This man KNOWINGLY exposed others

"The man told the newspaper he was aware he was placed on a no-fly list in the United States after his recent diagnosis with XDR TB, which is why he decided to fly into Canada.

He told the newspaper that he asked the CDC whether they would provide a jet for him to return home, and was told there was no money for it.

But Gerberding told CNN, "I don't think that that's an accurate description of what actually happened involving the CDC."

"We were doing everything we could to try to find a way to get him home," she said. "In fact, the irony is that when we were no longer able to reach him, we were even preparing to send the CDC plane to Europe to bring him home at government expense."

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/05/30/tb.flight/

[Selatius]

2. More ammo for the people who want secured borders and airports.

:popcorn:

[dflprincess]

3. So Ted Kennedy gets put on the no fly list and they do manage to catch him

but this guy is on it and he slips right by. Who does this clown know?

[Justitia]

4. Good thing we're spending all that $$$ on that Mexico fence! -eom

[Th1onein]

5. Did he have methicillin resistant TB?

n/t

[maddezmom]

6. he didn't even bother to wear a mask

Two passengers on flight with TB patient say they didn't see anyone wearing a mask
ATLANTA (CNN) -- Two of the passengers who spent more than 10 hours near the man infected with a potentially fatal form of tuberculosis said they didn't see anyone wearing a mask on the Atlanta-to-Paris flight or at the airport.

~snip~

In addition to the eight-hour flight, Hawkins said the passengers also spent over two hours at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on May 12 because the their flight was delayed.

"Our main concern was if any of us picked it up, we could have potentially given it to each other because we lived with each other for two weeks after that," Hawkins said. "We're sharing food and sharing drinks so we're just worried about passing it along."

Federal health officials said Wednesday they have just begun the process of finding about 80 air passengers on the two trans-Atlantic flights they feel are most at risk of having been exposed to extremely drug-resistant TB, or XDR TB.

The man carrying the disease was heading to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon and knew he had a form of drug-resistant TB, but he was not diagnosed with XDR TB until he had left the United States.

more:http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/31/thursday/index.html?section=cnn_latest