Health
Airline traveler with TB exposes fellow passengers
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 21, 2008
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a woman infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis flew aboard American Airlines Flight 293 in mid-December 2007 from New Delhi to Chicago. The woman then took a shorter flight within the U.S. and, when reaching her destination, sought treatment for fever and chest pain at a hospital. She was being treated and is in airborne isolation.
The CDC and state and local health departments are working with the Indian Ministry of Family Welfare, American Airlines and the Dept. of Homeland Security to ensure notification and follow-up of passengers and flight crew who may have been exposed. Those who think they may have been exposed, or their physicians, should contact the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine's duty officer through the CDC Director's Emergency Operation Center at 770-488-7100.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/01/21/hlbf0121.htm.