Atlanta man flying with untreatable TB

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tj

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Anyone following the story? Apparently some guy flew in from Europe with antibiotic resistant TB, and might have infected others on the plane.

The latest I read is that he was told he wasn't contagious (although he must have suspected something if he went so far as to record that conversation).

See this article.
 
well, ya gotta actually breathe the guy's spit to catch TB... it's not easy to catch, like the cold or the flu. i used to work very closely with antibiotic-resistant TB patients at an inner-city TB clinic...
 
samina said:
well, ya gotta actually breathe the guy's spit to catch TB... it's not easy to catch, like the cold or the flu. i used to work very closely with antibiotic-resistant TB patients at an inner-city TB clinic...
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That's interesting! I caught this story on the news last night. I thought hmm... that doesn't sound right. I didn't think that it was like the cold or flu or whatever, but wasn't sure as I don't know much about it. So, thanks for confirming that for me!
 
samina said:
well, ya gotta actually breathe the guy's spit to catch TB... it's not easy to catch, like the cold or the flu. i used to work very closely with antibiotic-resistant TB patients at an inner-city TB clinic...
Click to expand...
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
 
I think the issue here is that his sputum could have been passed into the air recycling system. The droplets would then be shot about the cabin in aerosol form. Having said that, if he was being polite (and not foul) if he was coughing or spluttering or whatever into a tissue very little could pass into the system, same with breathing. But in a flight for several hours you can understand why people would be worried that it would build up every time he produced sputem.
 
Ah, ok, that explains the relevancy of the article stating that his sputum didn't contain much TB bacteria. It is somewhat alarming however:

1) They put him on a "No Fly List", at all.
2) They didn't catch him flying in from Canada even though he was on the list.
3) That it sounds like the CDC didn't do much to try to help him.
4) That they are now tracking down the 100 other passengers. My #1 question - would they be doing this if it weren't for all the publicity?

(I'm sure there's more...)
 
ould they be doing this if it weren't for all the publicity?
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who is "they"?

I can't imagine being told I had tb and then jetsetting all over the world, especially if I knew it was an antibiotic-resistant form of tb...but I tend to be a bit on the cautious side.

On a bizarrely-related note, ABC website says:

"Speaker's father-in-law, Bob Cooksey, is a CDC microbiologist specializing in the spread of TB and other bacteria. He said only that he gave Speaker "fatherly advice" when he learned the young man had contracted the disease."
 
tj said:
1) They put him on a "No Fly List", at all.
2) They didn't catch him flying in from Canada even though he was on the list.
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He didn't fly from Canada, he flew to Canada. No US authorities would have been involved in that, and the Canadians wouldn't have been looking for him unless US authorities told them he might try that route home.

He then drove across the border, perhaps at an uncontrolled crossing in a rural area?
 
tj said:
Ah, ok, that explains the relevancy of the article stating that his sputum didn't contain much TB bacteria. It is somewhat alarming however:

1) They put him on a "No Fly List", at all.
2) They didn't catch him flying in from Canada even though he was on the list.
3) That it sounds like the CDC didn't do much to try to help him.
4) That they are now tracking down the 100 other passengers. My #1 question - would they be doing this if it weren't for all the publicity?

(I'm sure there's more...)
Click to expand...

my thoughts are that the publicity is the point... there is an agenda to have a "war on contagious diseases" just like the "war on terror", with significant controls put into place which undermine privacy, freedom, personal sovereignty, that whole thing. the objective is to have all medical records attached to individual ID#s chipped in some fashion (on cards, for now...), enabling centralized control.

the first step toward that is always to incite fear.

to my mind, for an individual reading of this story, focusing on one's personal responsibility to maintain a healthy immune & belief systems always strikes me as far more productive. going into fear-mode is a lose-lose scenario...

meh... i know i'm always in the minority on this one... lol
 
samina said:
to my mind, for an individual reading of this story, focusing on one's personal responsibility to maintain a healthy immune & belief systems always strikes me as far more productive. going into fear-mode is a lose-lose scenario...
Click to expand...
I agree with you 100%!!!
 
yep. and too much fear... it's backwards thinking, to my mind...

at work (i'm in pharma, remember), on the gazillion of TV screens posted all over the campus, are endless reminders of how we're surrounded by millions of germs & that washing hands saves lives...

it's not the millions of germs that kill... it's faulty immune systems, which we undermine collectively on so many levels, with our diets, our thoughts, the inifinite stresses of our lifestyles & choices... to my mind, that's what is so alarming, not the germs. i don't care a whit about them.
 
samina said:
at work (i'm in pharma, remember), on the gazillion of TV screens posted all over the campus, are endless reminders of how we're surrounded by millions of germs & that washing hands saves lives...

it's not the millions of germs that kill... it's faulty immune systems, which we undermine collectively on so many levels, with our diets, our thoughts, the inifinite stresses of our lifestyles & choices... to my mind, that's what is so alarming, not the germs. i don't care a whit about them.
Click to expand...

So you'd happily drink a raw live green smoothie made of spinach picked by someone with a nasty strain of e.coli on their hands, unwashed after doing their business by the side of the field since their employer is too cheap to provide a porta potty and some method of cleaning hands? I mean, you're a healthy adult, you'll live but you're going to be spending a lot of time in a little room for a day or two.

I don't think that's really what you meant to imply...
 
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