Rare Form of TB

A man who was under Federal Isolation for a rare antibiotic resistant strain of TB, got on a plane and traveled to Europe earlier this month, knowing that he was infected with TB but unaware of its rare and deadly form, but aware of the possibility of infecting others! He is now on the move and has left Grady Memorial Hospital, he says he is leaving to receive health care at National Jewish Medical Center in Denver. However it has not been confirmed if he has arrived in Denver as of yet. He found out that he had TB earlier this month, he was advised to stay quarantined, he left hospitalization and traveled to Paris, while he was away tests revealed that he had this rare resistant form of TB, the CDC tracked him down in Rome and urged him to hand him self over to the Italian authorities, but he refused, and got back on a plan to Montreal. He is now on the move once again and we can only hope he will reach Denver and stay where he is told. This outraged me this morning when I heard. How irresponsible, he could have not only exposed each person on both flights but he could have also turned it into an epidemic. The CDC has contacted everyone on the flight and is in the process of testing each person. There have only been 47 reported cases of this rare form of TB in the last few decades, but none in the last 20 years. As far as researchers know this strain is completely resistant to antibiotics and is untreatable. One Health official who treated the infected man called even TB a weapon of mass destruction that is largely ignored in this society but is still very much a concern with 9 million new cases per year world wide. What does this have to do with politics? Everything!! Anything that is of potential danger to the health and safety of a countries people should be considered part of politics. And if this does break out, which is looking very unlikely, you better believe the president would have to be heavily involved with the CDC to try to contain the matter as best as possible. I just need to say one more time, how utterly ridiculous I think this man is. To get on a plane filled with people when you have been diagnosed with TB and warned of the possibility of contamination!!! I am so upset and I cannot imagine how the people on the flight felt when they were notified of their possible exposure. That is all for now but will keep you updated as reports come in of the mans whereabouts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6JFkxpyYi4
quick clip of the highlights of this breaking story