CDC: 107 people on TB flights need tests

[JBean]

I can't get over that this is a real photo and not some jokester:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=3231184

The wife looks like she's in a nurse's costume for some sort of shoot.

Well, no wonder he didn't want to miss the wedding!

 

[JBean]

from the article:

>>"We have learned from the CDC that the risk appears to be low, because the patient is asymptomatic and is not coughing and spewing out germs. He is also smear-negative, which means when you put a sputum sample under a microscope, it is not teeming with bacteria," Johnson said on "Good Morning America." "The risk is not zero, but it is low, which ought to be reassuring." <<

 

[Olivia77]

I can't get over that this is a real photo and not some jokester:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=3231184

The wife looks like she's in a nurse's costume for some sort of shoot.

Oh...
my...

That photo sure is something.

 

[Olivia77]

P.S. Why is the wife wearing a mask now? Did she start as soon as he got that call not to travel? I doubt it.

 

[accordn2me]

Why doesn't he have a mask on?

 

[angelmom]

I don't know about how a person feels when they have TB...but I have had the flu and you're miserable. There's no way I would have gotten on a plane feeling like that. A moderate sinus infection will make you want to jump out of a plane too. Maybe it's good that you feel so rotten when you're really bad sick.....You stay at home whining and moaning and you're not out in public infecting others!

We were just talking about this Friday at Honors Day when they handed out the perfect attendance awards. They called up the (very few) kids who never missed a day, and a few of us looked at each other and said, "Thanks for getting everyone else sick!"

And where does my friend's oncologist say is the worst place for her to go? Work? School? Airplane? His office? No. CHURCH. For Pete's sake, people! Stay home if you're sick! God will understand!!!

 

[Texana]

Well, I am thinking that XDR-TB requires more up close and personal contact, where influenza can be contracted much more casually..yes? Like in an airplane?

TB is reportedly more contagious than influenza. Don't ask me the details, I just remember that from my teacher training. I have to get a TB test to teach.

A positive TB test for me would be the end of my income, so I'd personally choke someone who knowingly flew with it on a plane.

 

[Texana]

We were just talking about this Friday at Honors Day when they handed out the perfect attendance awards. They called up the (very few) kids who never missed a day, and a few of us looked at each other and said, "Thanks for getting everyone else sick!"

One year we noted that none of the "perfect attendance" kids got the A/B honor roll award. There were a lot of inferences to be made from that. And even more maddening, the principal made a bigger deal about the perfect attendance awards than she did the honor roll awards.

 

[accordn2me]

We were just talking about this Friday at Honors Day when they handed out the perfect attendance awards. They called up the (very few) kids who never missed a day, and a few of us looked at each other and said, "Thanks for getting everyone else sick!"

And where does my friend's oncologist say is the worst place for her to go? Work? School? Airplane? His office? No. CHURCH. For Pete's sake, people! Stay home if you're sick! God will understand!!!

You think that's bad......lemme tell ya....they put a clinic at my school! :doh: Not only do kids come sick.....they come not being vaccinated because the clinic gives them! I had the nurse come get one of my students (Kindergarten) and give her 3 vaccinations at one time! It just infuriates me! :furious:

 

[JBean]

TB is reportedly more contagious than influenza. Don't ask me the details, I just remember that from my teacher training. I have to get a TB test to teach.

HI Texana. I find that very hard to believe. TB is contagious through extended contact with an infected person and it is airborne. Influenza can be transmitted through a shared drinking glass and contact does not have to be extended. Moreover, TB is treatable by combinations of certain antibiotics in many cases, but influenza is viral.

>>TB is primarily an airborne disease. The disease is not likely to be transmitted through personal items belonging to those with TB, such as clothing, bedding, or other items they have touched. Adequate ventilation is the most important measure to prevent the transmission of TB.

Because most infected people expel relatively few bacilli, transmission of TB usually occurs only after prolonged exposure to someone with active TB. On average, people have a 50 percent chance of becoming infected with TB if they spend eight hours a day for six months or 24 hours a day for two months working or living with someone with active TB, researchers have estimated. People are most likely to be contagious when their sputum contains bacilli, when they cough frequently and when the extent of their lung disease, as revealed by a chest x-ray, is great. TB is spread from person to person in microscopic droplets &#8212; droplet nuclei &#8212; expelled from the lungs when a TB sufferer coughs, sneezes, speaks, sings, or laughs. Only people with active disease are contagious.<<
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/t/tuberculosis/contagious.htm

Influenza is contagious. Viruses that cause influenza spread from person to person mainly by airborne droplets of respiratory fluids that are sent through the air when someone infected with the virus coughs or sneezes. Other people can inhale the airborne virus and become infected. In some cases, the flu can be spread when someone touches a surface (e.g., doorknobs, countertops, telephones) with the virus on it and then touches his or her nose, mouth, or eyes. The flu is most easily spread in crowded conditions such as schools.<<

A positive TB test for me would be the end of my income, so I'd personally choke someone who knowingly flew with it on a plane

I don't blame you.

 

[angelmom]

JBean...that's some good info to know.

The news articles have made it sound like it is much more contagious, and I couldn't figure out how his wife wasn't ill.

 

[pedinurse]

We were just talking about this Friday at Honors Day when they handed out the perfect attendance awards. They called up the (very few) kids who never missed a day, and a few of us looked at each other and said, "Thanks for getting everyone else sick!"

And where does my friend's oncologist say is the worst place for her to go? Work? School? Airplane? His office? No. CHURCH. For Pete's sake, people! Stay home if you're sick! God will understand!!!

One of our pediatricians (a staunch Catholic) strongly recommends (hum, sounds familiar) that moms keep brand new babies home for a few weeks, especially during respiratory season.

Everyone wants to hold, love, and breath on the new baby. Go figure.

 

[pedinurse]

TB is reportedly more contagious than influenza. Don't ask me the details, I just remember that from my teacher training. I have to get a TB test to teach.

A positive TB test for me would be the end of my income, so I'd personally choke someone who knowingly flew with it on a plane.

Influenza is much more contagious than TB. It's viral and easily communicated between individuals. TB is not. It is caused by a bacteria, and is somewhat harder to spread. IF it were that easy to spread, we'd all have it (just like we all get the flu). Influenza will make you sick for weeks - TB can make you sick for months / years depending on when you get treatment and if you have inactive vs. active disease.

 

[JBean]

JBean...that's some good info to know.

The news articles have made it sound like it is much more contagious, and I couldn't figure out how his wife wasn't ill.

Influenza can be very deadly and kills many more people yearly than TB. I am not underestimating TB, but we shoudln't underestimate the problems with influenza either. I would think one of the best places to transmit influenza would be in an airplane.

I do not mean to imply that I think this guy did the right thing. I think if he was warned not to travel, he shouldn't have..period.

But we all have differnt notions of what TB is and how it is transmitted. Maybe he just thought if he kept to himself and didn't come into contact with anyone it would be alright. If I read the information on the internet, I might believe the same thing.The CDC has said the chances of passing it along or very very low, but since they are not zero, they must play it safe.

 

[pedinurse]

P.S. Why is the wife wearing a mask now? Did she start as soon as he got that call not to travel? I doubt it.

Oh, I highly doubt it too.

 

[pedinurse]

I can't get over that this is a real photo and not some jokester:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=3231184

The wife looks like she's in a nurse's costume for some sort of shoot.

Oh, now - you're just saying that because she looks like Paris Hilton!

 

[MSM]

I know what you mean! I have been known to gag at changing a few of my daughter's diapers when she has been sick, I cant imagine even going in the room of the public bathrooms.

LOL! I could tell you some stories about gross smells at work, but I'll spare you because they're REALLY gross. Let's just say that sometimes I'll be with a patient and I have to pretend I'm coughing and not gagging. I feel really guilty about it when it happens but I can't control it.

 

[accordn2me]

Oh, I highly doubt it too.

When do you think she started wearing one?

Her daddy is works for the CDC, right? I wonder why HE didn't contact his future SIL and tell him he had the rare, deadly strain and to stay home....and away from his daughter!

 

[MSM]

Thank you very much for answering questions from me and other posters. It was extremely generous of you to do research for our sake.

I learned a lot.

:blushing: Awww, thanks Nova, I'm embarrassed now! I enjoy looking stuff up. It has been almost 10 years since I graduated from med school and I have to review a lot of things that I don't see every day...I just can't keep all of that stuff in my brain. There's limited capacity in there!!!

 

[MSM]

Where is it that said that the had a mass in his lung? In all the articles I have read, I have not seen that at all.
Reports have been that he has been asymptomatic, continues to be asymptomatic and that his AFB's have been negative.

One of the big things here is that his sputum (lung secretions) is NOT showing the bacteria.

It has been reported in more than one article that the initial finding that led to his diagnosis of TB was a mass noted on a chest X-ray. He does indeed have TB in his respiratory secretions. That is how the TB was cultured. This article does not make it clear how the culture was done, but I would bet that he had a negative sputum culture and a positive BAL (bronchoalveolar lavage...basically a "washing" of the bronchi for culture). The bottom line is that he had TB cultured from his lungs, meaning he is potentially transmitting infected respiratory droplets. The risk may be low, but it's not zero, and he knew he had potentially contagious drug resistant TB when he got on the plane in Atlanta. I believe the CDC and the county health officials when they say he was clearly warned not to travel. The fact that they tried to hand deliver a letter to him indicates to me that they were very serious in trying to prevent him from carrying out his plans.

Because he has felt healthy, the disease was detected by accident, during a chest X-ray for something else. It uncovered a small mass in one lobe of his lung. A sputum test came back negative for TB, but a more sensitive culture test confirmed the diagnosis

http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/2007/05/29/0530meshtb.html?imw=Y