CDC: 107 people on TB flights need tests

[twinkiesmom]

Quote:
Originally Posted by twinkiesmom
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!

You see Paris Hilton, I see Jenna Jamison.

 

[Olivia77]

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1627159,00.html

An interesting article from Time magazine talking about how the CDC "begged" him to stay put until they could arrange transportation for him to get back home. It sounds as if they never intended to strand him in Italy, rather they just needed time to work the transport issues out.

 

[Autumn2004]

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.

I could share some too! lol! I know what you mean, I have on a few times put vicks under my nose so I wouldnt smell it before I went in the room if I had warning. You do feel bad for them but its so hard to be in the thick of it sometimes. Vicks does work well though, I swear you wont smell a thing.

 

[Texana]

Well, I hear you all about the influenza being more contagious, I'm just telling you that "they" make the TB to be a big honkin' deal. I confess I was not paying attention when they (some training class) explained why we needed the TB test. :angel:

But I had to get them in California and in Texas to keep teaching.

But I get a flu shot every year, anyway, and so do my daughters.

 

[Buzz Mills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by twinkiesmom
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!

You see Paris Hilton, I see Jenna Jamison.

Sexy!!

 

[accordn2me]

I could share some too! lol! I know what you mean, I have on a few times put vicks under my nose so I wouldnt smell it before I went in the room if I had warning. You do feel bad for them but its so hard to be in the thick of it sometimes. Vicks does work well though, I swear you wont smell a thing.

I like sniffing Vicks almost as much as those permanent markers (the metal kind) and gasoline.....and I wonder why my memory and spelling skills are so bad! :crazy:

 

[philamena]

I like sniffing Vicks almost as much as those permanent markers (the metal kind) and gasoline.....and I wonder why my memory and spelling skills are so bad! :crazy:

omg, me too! Why do we like those smells? :clap:

 

[MistyM]

Quote:
Originally Posted by twinkiesmom
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!

You see Paris Hilton, I see Jenna Jamison.

I'm sorry but this cracks me up. It must be Paris Hilton, did you see one of the little headline blurbs?

From Paris to TB Treatment

If i was just browsing the article i would think that was Paris, taking a photo opportunity to pose with her newly infected victim!

:dance:

 

[Mygirlsadie]

Do any of you find it strange that the father in law of this man with TB actually works for the CDC speacilizing in the TB section???..:waitasec:

 

[angelmom]

Do any of you find it strange that the father in law of this man with TB actually works for the CDC speacilizing in the TB section???..:waitasec:

I do think it's an odd coincidence, but can't imagine it being a deliberate exposure. For one thing, why would he risk his daughter's health (and his own, and everyone he knows, and the whole world if the media is to be believed) to get rid of a potential husband. For another, he'd be the first suspect. He could lose his job even if he wasn't found to be guilty but the investigation turned up irregularities in how the TB cultures are handled or anything else wrong. In fact, it still wouldn't surprise me if the CDC didn't find some way to throw him under the bus for this and fire him for the sake of the press.

Mabye it is just cynicism from living in Atlanta and reading the AJC far too often than is good for your mental health, but the CDC and the Fulton County Health Dept. are under fire on a regular basis for the stupid stuff they do. The local ruling class has a problem with corruption, image, and trust. (The CDC is federal, but the people who work there are part of that Atlanta beaurocratic circle of power.) Fulton County is pretty much spiraling down the tubes. Actually, the city I live in just voted a year ago to become a city instead of just being part of unincorporated Fulton County b/c we were getting so screwed, and next we are going to try to secede and form a whole separate county.

None of this shocks me at all.

 

[angelmom]

More on all the different positive and negatives and what they all mean...it's kind of confusing.

http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/2007/05/31/0601meshtb.html

...Speaker said in an earlier interview with the Journal-Constitution that he continues to feel great and has never had any symptoms.

"I could trot a marathon and be perfectly fine," he said Tuesday. Indeed, the man and the rest of the world wouldn't even know he has XDR TB if he hadn't received a chest x-ray for another reason.

It detected a small mass on the upper right lobe of his lung. Further testing revealed it was tuberculosis.

That testing involved having Speaker spit in a cup, then examining his sputum, which has been smeared across glass, under a microscope. He's considered "smear negative" because TB germs could not be seen.

But on further testing the sample was able to grow TB in a culture, a process that can take weeks. That means he is "culture positive" for TB.

"So my contagion level is very, very low. But I'm culture positive," Speaker told the Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.

much more at link...

 

[JBean]

U.S. border security scrutinized after TB patient slips in

We had two agencies that should have been in constant communication with each other, and obviously the system failed," Thompson said on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now."
"Mr. Speaker should not have been able to get into Canada and back into the United States undetected. Our system did not work."
The border agent who processed Speaker's entry on May 24 has been placed on administrative duties while the investigation continues, the Homeland Security official said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/06/01/tb.flight/

 

[MSM]

I could share some too! lol! I know what you mean, I have on a few times put vicks under my nose so I wouldnt smell it before I went in the room if I had warning. You do feel bad for them but its so hard to be in the thick of it sometimes. Vicks does work well though, I swear you wont smell a thing.

I've never tried Vicks but have used benzoin in my mask in the OR...I'm kind of addicted to the benzoin smell!

 

[angelmom]

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/?CMP=google_bcast&partner=google&gclid=CO2giNmCu4wCFQfxgAodESZeVg

Video link to interview with Andrew Speaker's wife.

I would like to see how many might change their initial opinion after watching this entire video.

 

[ziggy]

Nope. Saw the video and have zero compassion for these people. Something weird is up with this story, but regardless, if he's got TB and it's showing up in his lungs, that woman should not have risked exposing her daughter, even if the risk was very low - and their entitlement mentality and me, me, me story is lost on me.

 

[christine2448]

By reading some of the posts, it is frightening to me that there are a lot of people who take up for him and would do the same thing. Put their own desires ahead of the safety of others. What will happen if we do get a real lethal disease epidemic in this couuntry? The attitude seems to be, I will do what I want regardless of how many others I hurt. It is especially disturbing to me that a nurse who deals with children takes infectious disease so lightly.

Excellent post!

 

[angelmom]

Nope. Saw the video and have zero compassion for these people. Something weird is up with this story, but regardless, if he's got TB and it's showing up in his lungs, that woman should not have risked exposing her daughter, even if the risk was very low - and their entitlement mentality and me, me, me story is lost on me.

Not even if he wasn't told not to kiss his wife or her daughter? Not even if he was not told to wear a mask until the call in Rome?

How can he be so dangerous to people on a plane but he can kiss (and presumably have sex with) his wife?

She is very clear that they were never told to take those kind of precautions, regardless of the semantics dispute (advised vs. warned vs. preferred, etc.) of the travel advisory.

 

[Buzz Mills]

U.S. border security scrutinized after TB patient slips in

We had two agencies that should have been in constant communication with each other, and obviously the system failed," Thompson said on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now."
"Mr. Speaker should not have been able to get into Canada and back into the United States undetected. Our system did not work."
The border agent who processed Speaker's entry on May 24 has been placed on administrative duties while the investigation continues, the Homeland Security official said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/06/01/tb.flight/

So much for Border Security--he didn't look sick, and I didn't see any guns, or bombs. It's too bad he didn't fly into Mexico, and walk in across the border, like all of the others.

One other thought; all of this stress can't be any good for Andrew Speaker's immune system---this could send him into a tailspin.

 

[Nova]

: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!!!

Well, I can't exaggerate my gratitude. Particularly when it comes to medical information (including forensics), we are often left here to struggle over technical information that none of us really understands. It's great to have someone who knows what she's talking about, particularly in this area!

 

[accordn2me]

Not even if he wasn't told not to kiss his wife or her daughter? Not even if he was not told to wear a mask until the call in Rome?

How can he be so dangerous to people on a plane but he can kiss (and presumably have sex with) his wife?

She is very clear that they were never told to take those kind of precautions, regardless of the semantics dispute (advised vs. warned vs. preferred, etc.) of the travel advisory.

I didn't think she was very clear at all.

If the CDC told them before they left that he would need treatment from the hospital that specializes in it all the way in Denver, they should have known that was serious!

After watching the interview, I'm really suspicious now. It was that excuse about why he had a chest X-ray....."He had fallen. And was worried he had bruised a rib." Really? Like that would show on an X-ray. And if it did show....what would they do for a "bruised rib?"