TB sufferer 'could have infected flight passengers'

A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the US government after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two transatlantic flights, health officials said today.

The affected flights were between Atlanta and Paris and Prague and Montreal, officials said.

It marks the first time since 1963 that the government issued a quarantine order. The last such order quarantined a patient with smallpox 44 years ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The infected man flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 this year aboard Air France Flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 104 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the US.

He co-operated with authorities after learning he had an unusually dangerous form of TB. He voluntarily went to a hospital and is not facing prosecution, officials said.

The man is in hospital in Atlanta in respiratory isolation, according to the World Health Organisation.

He was potentially infectious at the time of the flights, so CDC officials are recommending medical examinations for cabin crew members on those flights, as well as passengers sitting in the same rows or within two rows.

The man was infected with “extensively drug-resistant” TB, also called XDR-TB. It resists many drugs used to treat the infection. Last year, there were two US cases of that strain.

The CDC urged people on the same flights to get checked for the infection.

Tuberculosis kills nearly two million people each year worldwide but rates are falling in developing countries due to treatment and vaccination programmes.