U.S. health officials search for air travellers exposed to drug-resistant TB

Jan 2 2008

Health officials in the United States are again trying to track down dozens of airline passengers who may have been inadvertently exposed to tuberculosis (TB).

It seems a 30 year old woman who arrived in San Francisco on December 13th aboard American Airlines flight 293 from New Delhi had been diagnosed with with drug-resistant tuberculosis while in India.

The woman was nevertheless allowed to board a flight to the U.S., despite her diagnosis; the flight stopped in Chicago before continuing to San Francisco International.

A week after arriving in San Francisco the woman appeared in the emergency department at Stanford University Hospital and was hospitalized.

Health officials say her presence on the flight may have exposed those on board to an increased risk of contracting tuberculosis.

The woman who is from Nepal, now lives in California and is currently in isolation and undergoing treatment for the disease.

Health officials say the woman displayed symptoms on the flight and will remain in isolation until her TB is no longer be contagious.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia have already contacted 17 states requesting that they contact 44 people who sat within 2 rows of the infected woman requesting they are tested for TB, with a follow-up 10 weeks later.

The CDC, says the woman was at the extreme end of the severity of TB and was coughing up blood when she arrived at the hospital but the likelihood of anybody contracting the virus from the woman are low because the exposure to her was less than 8 hours, which is not long enough to contract the virus.

TB is caused by a bacteria which usually attacks the lungs and was once one of the world's the top causes of death.

TB is spread through the air from one person to another as the bacteria are released when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

The signs or symptoms of active pulmonary TB include a cough that lasts at least three weeks which may produce discolored or bloody sputum, unintentional weight loss, tiredness, a slightly raised temperature, night sweats, chills, loss of appetite and painful breathing or coughing.

An international health scare developed last May, when a TB patient flew to Europe for his wedding, but there has been no evidence that the man spread the disease.