Thread: SF,CA Passenger With TB in Calif. Hospital

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080101/D8TSQ9J01.html

Passenger With TB in Calif. Hospital


Dec 31, 9:23 PM (ET)

By PAUL ELIAS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Health officials were searching Monday for dozens of airline passengers who may have come in contact with a 30-year-old woman infected with a hard-to-treat form of tuberculosis on a flight from India.

The 30-year-old woman, who authorities declined to identify, was being treated at a Bay Area hospital. Officials said the chances that she had infected anyone else were minimal.

The woman arrived in San Francisco on Dec. 13 aboard an American Airlines flight that she boarded in New Delhi. The flight stopped in Chicago before continuing to San Francisco International.

"She did have symptoms on the flight," said Santa Clara County Health Director Dr. Marty Fenstersheib. "She was coughing."

Health officials said she was diagnosed with TB in India, but boarded the flight anyway. Such passengers are typically barred from boarding flights originating in the United States, but U.S. officials have little authority over who boards incoming international flights.

About a week after the flight landed, the woman showed up at the Stanford Hospital emergency room with advanced symptoms of the disease. Hospital spokesman Gary Migdol said the woman is in isolation and is in stable condition.

The woman will remain hospitalized until she tests negative for the disease, which will take at least two weeks, Fenstersheib said. Her stay could last longer because she has a strain of the disease that resists the most common antibiotics, he said.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking health authorities in 17 states to contact 44 people who sat within two rows of the woman and urge them get checked for tuberculosis. The risk of infection is far lower than passing on influenza or the common cold, doctors said.

"TB requires pretty constant contact with someone," Fenstersheib said. About 1 percent to 2 percent of all tuberculosis cases are of the multi-drug resistant variety, he said.

CDC spokeswoman Shelly Diaz said the agency has not received any reports back. Diaz said it will take more than eight weeks to receive definitive results.

In May, a TB patient caused an international health scare when he flew to Europe for his wedding. There has been no evidence that the man spread the disease.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking health authorities in 17 states to contact 44 people who sat within two rows of the woman and urge them get checked for tuberculosis. The risk of infection is far lower than passing on influenza or the common cold, doctors said.


The entire crew and list of passengers needs notified. The air within a plane is re-circulated. Everyone is a potential victim.

Such passengers are typically barred from boarding flights originating in the United States, but U.S. officials have little authority over who boards incoming international flights.

Under the globalization plan, the health and well-being of the American citizens ceases to be a concern for our government. One of these days in the not so distant future someone is going to step off one of those international flights or cross the border with a new strain of a virus that will kill hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans.

The 30-year-old woman, who authorities declined to identify, was being treated at a Bay Area hospital. Officials said the chances that she had infected anyone else were minimal.

They are down playing this!!!!!!!!

If they cough up the virus and you inhale it, you contract it. I've heard you can catch it after just 5 minutes of close contact with an infected person. I read that in the article about the chicken plant employees in which many were testing positive.

They should have yanked her off the plane when she landed.

Dixie

They omitted if she is here on a visitor visa or what.....She came over to get free hiospital care....

And, following on to this:

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking health authorities in 17 states to contact 44 people who sat within two rows of the woman and urge them get checked for tuberculosis. The risk of infection is far lower than passing on influenza or the common cold, doctors said.

...And, how about the families and co-workers of those people???
This is the scary thing about deadly communicable diseases - tracking the history of the spread can be so darn tricky, and they can spread much faster than our ability to traverse the spread of the disease.

Yeah - what type of Visa was this person on here, and what was the nature of the visit?

Also - anyone want to wonder about why many folks at the CDC have to have security clearances to work there? Think on that one for a while...

Health officials said she was diagnosed with TB in India, but boarded the flight anyway. Such passengers are typically barred from boarding flights originating in the United States, but U.S. officials have little authority over who boards incoming international flights.

SO IT IS OKAY FOR FOREIGNERS CARRYING DISEASES AND OTHER ILLNESSES TO FLY INTO AMERICA, simply because "officials have little authority over who boards incoming international flights"?

HOW COME?

Originally Posted by butterbean

SO IT IS OKAY FOR FOREIGNERS CARRYING DISEASES AND OTHER ILLNESSES TO FLY INTO AMERICA, simply because "officials have little authority over who boards incoming international flights"?

HOW COME?

It might slow down business if they were restricted, our lives mean nothing, everything for the almighty dollar (or Amero).