Search on for passengers who sat near TB man

A tuberculosis patient under the first federal quarantine since 1963 left an Atlanta hospital today and arrived at a Denver facility that specialises in respiratory disorders, officials said.

The 31-year-old man walked into the building wearing a mask around 8am and said he felt fine, Denver National Jewish Hospital spokesman William Allstetter said.

Health officials in North America and Europe are trying to track down about 80 passengers who sat near him on the two trans-Atlantic flights.

Allstetter said doctors plan to begin treating him today with two antibiotics, one oral and one intravenous.

He will also undergo a basic physical exam, a test to evaluate how infectious he is and a CT scan and lung X-ray.

Doctors hope to also determine where he contracted the disease. He will be kept in a special unit with two rooms and a special ventilation system, Allstetter said.

“He may not leave that room much for several weeks,” he said.

The man, who has not been publicly identified beyond his age, knew he had TB when he flew from Atlanta to Europe in mid-May for his wedding and honeymoon, but he did not find out until he was already there that it was an extensively drug-resistant strain considered especially dangerous.