Flier tests positive for TB

San Francisco: A passenger on an American Airlines flight from India who sat near a woman with drug-resistant tuberculosis has tested positive for TB, federal health officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uncovered the second case after tracking down and testing more than two dozen passengers who sat near the woman on the December flight from New Delhi to Chicago.
But CDC officials cautioned Thursday that because the other passenger had lived in a country where TB is common, they could not determine how the infection was contracted.
"It's not really surprising to see people on a plane from a country with high TB prevalence testing positive for TB," said Shelly Diaz, a spokeswoman for the agency.
The 30-year-old woman diagnosed with the full-blown version of the disease late last year arrived in Chicago on Dec. 13 and then traveled on to San Francisco International Airport. Health officials said the woman learned in India that she was sick with TB but still boarded the international flight.
About a week after the flight landed, the woman showed up at the Stanford Hospital emergency room with a fever and chest pain and coughing up blood.
17/04/08 Marcus Wohlsen/The Associated Press/Daily Breeze, USA

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Categories: Foreign Apr 2008