Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Dr. Kim Mulvihill Reporting A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government. He possibly exposed passengers and crew members on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month.
It's been determined the man has a strain of tuberculosis that doesn't respond to first and second line treatments. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have urged people on the same flights to get checked for the infection.
One was a flight from Atlanta to Paris that arrived on May 13, on Air France flight 385. The man then returned to the U.S. on May 24 on Czech Air flight 410 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the U.S. from Canada.
Doctors at the CDC say the chance for infection are slim, but CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding says, "The medical evidence would suggest that his potential for transmission would be on the low side, but we know it isn't zero. And so we are considering his ability to transmit, but also the seriousness of this organism and the chance that some passenger on this plane could be one that was at a special risk for serious TB on the basis of their own personal medical history."
The State Health Department says it's unlikely that anyone in Utah might have been exposed. The CDC is responsible for contacting any affected states' health departments and Utah has NOT been contacted.
Tuberculosis is a disease caused by germs that are spread from person to person through the air. It usually affects the lungs, and kills nearly two million people around the world each year.
