Federal Quarantine for TB Traveler

My big worry is about the religious nuts (I am not going to speculate upon which religion) who want to kill many people and are trying to get samples of this disease to grow and weaponize. I know that the CDC and other agencies are trying to find a cure, but I know some sick people probably want samples for other reasons. And now this idiot travels around the world spreading this disease! I wonder if he can be charged with attempted murder if anyone shows up with it on those planes?

My Way News - Federal Quarantine for TB Traveler: "CDC officials said they are concentrating on investigating the trans-Atlantic flights, when possibility of spread of the disease was greatest because he was in a confined space with other people for many hours.

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by germs that are spread from person to person through the air. It usually affects the lungs and can lead to symptoms such as chest pain and coughing up blood. It kills nearly 2 million people each year worldwide.

Because of antibiotics and other measures, the TB rate in the United States has been falling for years. Last year, it hit an all-time low of 13,767 cases, or about 4.6 cases per 100,000 Americans.

Health officials worry about 'multidrug-resistant' TB, which can withstand the mainline antibiotics isoniazid and rifampin. The man was infected with something even worse - 'extensively drug-resistant' TB, also called XDR-TB, which resists many drugs used to treat the infection.

There have been 17 U.S. XDR-TB cases since 2000, according to CDC statistics.

Three-quarters were people from foreign countries. One case was a Russian man who arrived in Phoenix last year. He was jailed after he stopped taking medications and went unmasked to a restaurant and other businesses, threatening the health of others.

The CDC's statement that the patient is at the low end of communicability "provides some reassurance," said Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University.

The highly dangerous form is "expanding around the world," particularly in South Africa, eastern Europe and the former states of the Soviet Union, he said."