Med News Today

TB Patient Denys Travel Ban

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The tuberculosis patient who set off an international health scare by flying to Europe then Canada before driving back to the U.S. told lawmakers Wednesday that doctors told him he was not contagious.

Federal and local officials contended otherwise during testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.

Andrew Speaker, the 31-year-old lawyer from Atlanta, Georgia, who is now in isolation in a Denver, Colorado, hospital also told the panel that he was never ordered to stay in the United States.

"I've cooperated with anything anyone has asked me to do," Speaker said. "I looked to the people who I believe I should trust to tell me whether or not I'm a threat to those around me, and they told me I wasn't."

He added, "I didn't go running off or hide from people. It's complete fallacy and it's a lie."

A Fulton County, Georgia, health official, however, insisted that Speaker was told he was not highly contagious, rather than not contagious at all. Dr. Steven Katkowsky added that about 17 percent of TB cases are transmitted by people who are considered not highly contagious.

"The patient's chart indicates he was told he was not highly contagious," Katkowsky said.

Federal and local health officials said Speaker took an international flight two days earlier than planned after he was told he had a drug-resistant form of TB and should not travel.

posted by nattietodd @ 1:11 PM