India to Chicago flight with sick woman: Four Illinois residents tested for TB

Health officials have tested four Illinois residents for tuberculosis infection after they shared a December flight from India to Chicago with a woman who was sick with a drug-resistant strain of the disease.
Several others are still being sought for testing as part of a national effort to find and check passengers at risk for infection as a result of the flight, officials said Friday.
In all, eight people from Illinois were considered at risk by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after traveling on American Airlines Flight 293 from New Delhi to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Dec. 13.
Passengers are considered at risk when they sit near an infected passenger on a flight longer than eight hours, according to World Health Organization guidelines. In such cases, testing is suggested for the flight crew and people seated within two rows of the sick passenger.
Officials have been trying to contact 44 people from 17 states and advise them to be tested by local health departments.
The sick passenger is a 30-year-old woman from Sunnyvale, Calif., who has not been identified by authorities. She was diagnosed with multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis in San Francisco, six days after the flight, Diaz said.
05/01/08 Robert Mitchum/Chicago Tribune, United States

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Categories: Foreign Jan 2008