Passenger who flew with TB apologises

AN attorney quarantined with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis apologised to his fellow plane passengers in an interview yesterday, and insisted he was told he wasn’t contagious or a threat to anyone.

“I’ve lived in this state of constant fear and anxiety and exhaustion for a week now, and to think that someone else is now feeling that, I wouldn’t want anyone to feel that way. It’s awful,” Andrew Speaker told ABC’s Good Morning America from his hospital room in Denver.

Speaking through a face- mask, Speaker said he, his doctors and the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention all knew he had TB that was resistant to front-line drugs before he flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon last month. But he said he was advised then that he wasn’t contagious or a danger to anyone.