A 30-year-old woman infected with a hard-to-treat form of
tuberculosis has U.S. health officials seeking dozens of
international passengers who may have flown with her from India and
also in the United States.
The woman, who authorities declined to identify, is recovering
in a San Francisco Bay Area hospital. She arrived in San Francisco
Dec. 13 aboard an American Airlines flight that she boarded in New
Delhi, India. The flight stopped in Chicago before continuing to
San Francisco International.
Health officials said that despite being diagnosed with TB in
India, she boarded the flight anyway. U.S. officials have little
authority over who boards incoming international flights. Such
passengers are typically barred from boarding flights originating
in the United States.
"She did have symptoms on the flight," said Santa Clara County
Health Director Dr. Marty Fenstersheib. "She was coughing."
About a week after the flight landed, the woman walked into the
Stanford Hospital emergency room with advanced symptoms of the
disease. Hospital spokesman Gary Migdol said the woman is being
treated in isolation and is in stable condition.
Fenstersheib said the woman will remain hospitalized until she
tests negative for the disease, which could take a least two weeks.
Fenstersheib said her stay could last longer because she has a
strain of the disease that resists the most common antibiotics.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
are asking health authorities in 17 states to contact 44 people who
sat within two rows of the woman and urge them get checked for
tuberculosis. The risk of infection is far lower than passing on
influenza or the common cold, doctors said.
CDC spokeswoman Shelly Diaz said the agency has not received any
reports back. Diaz said it will take more than eight weeks to
receive definitive results.
(China Daily January 4, 2008)