TB case stresses access limits

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Federal officials said yesterday they're working hard to track down about 80 people who sat near a tuberculosis-infected man on two international flights but said new powers are needed to help officials contact travelers more quickly in similar future situations.

Dr. Martin Cetron, director of Global Migration and Quarantine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC has long had problems getting quick access to passenger manifest lists in situations like this one but proposed new federal quarantine rules two years ago to help correct this.

"We've had this [problem] for years," he said, adding that "we hope to be able to expedite and bring to closure very quickly" the new CDC rules, which have been in a period of public review.

The rules would, among other things, let the CDC have electronic passenger lists within 24 hours of a request.

In the meantime however, CDC officials said they're still trying to get manifests and contact information for two international flights earlier this month so they can test about 80 passengers who sat for more than eight hours near a man infected with a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.

The officials held a press conference yesterday to get the word out to the public about the May 13 Air France flight from Atlanta to Paris and the May 24 Czech Airlines flight from Prague to Montreal. They would like to check 40 to 50 people who sat in or near row 51 on the Paris flight and about 30 people who sat in or near seat 12C on the Montreal flight. They also are trying to contact the flights' 27 crew members.

The Atlanta man, whose name hasn't been released by authorities, is being held in isolation at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital -- a move CDC officials don't recall having to use since 1963. Dr. Cetron said the CDC is making plans to transport him to a hospital in Denver for treatment.

The trans-Atlantic saga has exposed some breaches in communications and other problems. The man knew he had tuberculosis and was working with Fulton County, Ga., health officials before he left for his wedding in Europe.

CDC and health officials said he was advised not to fly, but the man told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that county officials knew he was going to travel anyway and never ordered him not to, saying only they "preferred" he wouldn't.

"We headed off to Greece thinking everything's fine," he said.