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CDC quarantines man with drug-resistant TB | 05.30.2007 | 07:49:45 | Views: 5717 | ID: May 30 '07: Center for Disease Control officials have quarantined an airline traveler who has been diagnosed with a fatal drug-resistant form of tuberculosis CNN reported. The man, who flew from the U.S. to France and who returned to the U.S. by car via Toronto, was the first person to be ordered under such guidelines since 1963. Currently, health officials are searching for those passengers aboard the two flights who would have been in close contact with the man, hoping to curb the potential spread of the illness. Reuters reported that the man "voluntarily entered a medical isolation facility in New York City on Friday before being flown on a CDC plane back to Atlanta on Monday." Officials at the CDC have been working with international, state and local governments to identify and contact those people who were on board the plane with the man. CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said the illness, known as XDR TB, resists almost all antibiotics. "This is an unusual TB organism," Gerberding told the international wire service. " ... one that's very, very difficult to treat. And we want to make sure that we have done everything we possibly can to identify people who could be at risk." According to Reuters, "XDR TB requires 18 month to two years of treatment with a mixture of four to six drugs. The treatment can often require surgery, as well, and can cost $500,000 per patient. ... XDR TB is resistant to first-line antibiotics, and to an entire class of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones, as well as to at least one of three injectable drugs."
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