9 who sat near TB-stricken woman on India-to-O'Hare flight are sought

Nine people in Illinois are being sought by public health departments after sitting near a woman who had tuberculosis on a flight from India to Chicago in early December, health officials said.
The woman, who has not been identified, was on American Airlines Flight 293 from New Delhi to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Dec. 13. She continued on another flight to San Francisco, where six days later she was diagnosed with the multiple drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, said Shelley Diaz, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Diaz said World Health Organization guidelines state that passengers are at risk when they travel with an infected passenger on a flight longer than 8 hours. Passengers in the same row as the sick passenger, or seated two rows ahead or behind, are sought out and tested, as well as the flight crew.
For the Dec. 13 incident, 44 passengers in 17 states, including Illinois, are considered at-risk and are being contacted by local health departments."The likelihood of getting TB on a flight is low," Diaz said, "but TB is serious, and we want people to get tested. It may be that nobody has it, but we want them to get tested just in case."
After being notified by the Santa Clara County Health Department of the tuberculosis infection, the CDC obtained passenger records from American Airlines and the Department of Homeland Security, Diaz said. They then contacted state health departments on Dec. 27.
31/12/07 Robert Mitchum/Chicago Tribune, United States

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Categories: Foreign Jan 2008