Fugitive TB patient's father-in-law a TB expert at the CDC

Jun 3 2007

The air traveller who flitted across Europe in a bid to avoid authorities because he had a rare form of tuberculosis (TB), apparently has a father-in-law who is a tuberculosis researcher for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S.

The fugitive, 31 year old lawyer Andrew Speaker, was reportedly on his honeymoon and is now officially detained by officials at a hospital in a Denver hospital undergoing intensive antibiotic therapy and may need surgery for a tennis-ball-size infection in his lung.

Authorities are examining any possible link between the lawyer and his father-in-law after Mr. Speaker was chased by health officials as he zigzagged his way across Europe and the Atlantic knowingly carrying the dangerous XDR form of tuberculosis which is resistant to drugs.

Doctors say Speaker will need months or even years of intensive antibiotic therapy and possibly surgery in order to treat the TB.

The detention order, a rarely used federal tool which was invoked by the CDC against Speaker, was the first to be issued in 44 years, after he flew across Europe against the advice of experts.

The CDC and the World Health Organization have been trying to contact anyone who sat close to Speaker for a prolonged period of time in order that they can be tested for the disease.

To date 160 of the 292 U.S. residents or citizens who were on board an Air France/Delta flight that Speaker took to Paris from Atlanta on May 12th have been contacted but officials in Europe are still said to be searching for passengers on a number of flights the man took to Greece, Rome and Paris.

Although experts say Mr. Speaker was not especially contagious, some 17 percent of cases of tuberculosis have been transmitted by people not identified as highly contagious.

Denver Public Health authorities say Mr. Speaker will be detained at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center until further laboratory tests indicate that he is no longer contagious.

Mr. Speaker's father-in-law, Robert Cooksey, has worked at the CDC for 32 years in the Division of Tuberculosis and his involvement in the matter is being examined.

Tuberculosis kills 1.6 million a year, mainly in developing countries and it infects about third of the world's population.

Although most cases are latent, and even people with active disease can show no symptoms of illness, any person with active TB can spread the bacteria to others.

According to the CDC after exposure, it usually takes 8 to 10 weeks before a TB test indicates whether someone has become infected.

Speaker, a personal injury lawyer, says he was initially told that he wasn't contagious or a danger to anyone.

He has asked for forgiveness for his behaviour and for sneaking on board two transatlantic flights to Europe and Montreal, even though he was aware he carried the highly drug-resistant TB and had been warned by U.S. health officials not to travel.

His father-in-law, Robert Cooksey apparently helped to find Speaker and diagnose his condition.

Speaker apparently made the journeys despite the warnings because he feared he wouldn't survive if he didn't reach the U.S.

Doctors hope to determine where Speaker contracted the disease, which has been found around the world and exists in pockets in Russia and Asia.

The U.S. Congress is questioning how Speaker eluded all attempts to stop him, and passed through a Canadian-U.S. border crossing despite an order to detain him.