The guy with TB who flew - Exercising his right to travel or thoughtless dhead?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/us/31tb.html?th&emc=th

So, the local health department tells him he's got TB and they would prefer he doesn't fly. But his honeymoon was so important that he got on a plane anyway, actually 4 different planes and flew all over Europe. So, he has put upwards of 450 people at risk of contracting a drug resistant form of TB.

So, what do you think:

People today have no concept of TB the way our grandparents (or Great Grandparents) did.

It's sobering to think we might soon get a chance to experience a taste of those "good old days."

They contacted him in Europe, told him that he had a rare
strain that can't be treated, and that he should go
to medical authorities IMMEDIATELY...

But he got on a plane and flew home instead.

MAJOR dickhead.

Looking out for Number 1.

want to turn himself over to the Italian authorities. Can't say as I blame him. I suppose I'd want to be treated in my own country.

He did the wrong thing, but I sort of understand it.

Mz Pip
:dem:

...knowingly...and exposes hundreds of people to it, should be thrown in jail.

IMHO.

:grr:

He knew and he still flew. Jackass.

and hearing the story on NPR (I live a sheltered life), so I don't know where he got it.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been a thread in GD.

to kill all the war protestors and poor people, or whatever.

Usually (the statistically average way) a US resident with TB is an immigrant who contracted it in their home country, and then moved here. I worked at a hospital for a time which served a large slice of Minnesota's recently arrived residents and I got tested repeatedly to see if I had been exposed. I always tested negative. (In case your wondering.)

It sounds to me like this fellow is quite the globe trotter however--that sounds like one hell of a honeymoon, and he might well have picked it up on his travels.

Of course, this only a semi-educated guess on my part.

to Asia. Didn't hear where though.

He didn't feel sick. This was picked up on a routine chest x-ray.

Mz Pip
:dem:

we don't know where he got it from, not from reports i've seen, we just know that he boldly spread it through six countries without a care for anyone except himself

It's on MSNBC and EOG that his name is Andrew Speaker, a personal injury lawyer from Atlanta.

http://www.eog.com/news/full-article.aspx?id=25026

who works at the CDC in Atlanta as a microbiologist working on......TB. His fil also advised him that it would be ok to travel abroad (to spread the disease?)

that when he knew his passport was flagged for stoppage he deliberately drove back to the US from Canada to avoid the authorities. At least that way he only put his own family in danger...

I thought I remembered hearing he had been arrested for the same kind of thing and had been there 9 months without representation? I could be wrong but the guy is not an attorney so that could explain why he is still there?

Similar circumstances. The guy was warned that he was a public health risk, and he was ordered to wear a facemask when around other people. He refused to comply, so he got quarantined.

The guy who got on several planes knowing he had a resistant strain of TB is a cretin.

at least I read it somewhere and it wasn't a figment of my imagination.

I don't remember that one from the Constitution. Be that as it may, there are plenty of rights that ARE guaranteed in the Constitution that have exceptions, most due to the likelihood of harming others. I'd say this guy falls under that category.

Reminds me of my ex husband. He was doing time in a very nasty prison outside Boston. It was overcrowded and rough and TB was pretty prevalent there.

I'd filed divorce papers as soon as he was convicted because he was a scumbag and a wife-beater and I'd been afraid to leave prior to that. The only reason I visited him that day was to see if the prison was a place I could bring his then-3-year-old son to visit (it was NOT).

Anyway, I walked into the visitor's room, he stood up and before I could stop him, gave me a big, wet kiss, sticking his tongue right in my mouth.

Then he smiled and told me, "Hey, they tell me I tested positive for TB."

I fucking hate that man. :grr:

Icky.

And what a slug.

i feel sorry for the woman who married him and hope she married him only for his money and takes him to the cleaners while he is detained in isolation for a very, very, very, very, VERY long time to come

i also hope that each and every one of the people who have to undergo health tests because of him are able to take him to civil court and obtain civil damages

i hope after he gets out of isolation that he is jailed in the czech republic for fleeing there after receiving confirmation that he had the most serious and untreatable form of the disease

i hope czech republic jails have lots of rats in the solitary ward

if he ever gets out of there alive, i think he went spreading his germs in canada next, i hope canada then gets him and extradites him to syria or something for questioning and that he is never heard from again

there is simply no excuse for some guy putting his big fat greek wedding over the health of hundreds if not thousands of mortal human beings who did him no harm

I don't think he fully realized the magnitude of the problem, but still he was warned and didn't even bother to wear a mask.

department?

He's a fucking asshole.

to get on a plane full of people knowing that you are carrying TB??

When I was in college, a girl in my dorm died of TB. She knew she had it but apparently no one else did. What a mess that was!!

Someone who didn't actually get the disease (symptoms) themselves but spread it to many others.

springs to mind. His father in law works for the CDC and gave him counsel. He learned of the seriousness of his illness while outside the United States. He was warned in the most dire terms not to fly back to the United States. He tried to circumvent authorities by flying to Canada and driving into the United States. He ought to be charged with a shit load of crimes if any other travelers end up sick because of his narcissistic assholery. If he survives.

There is no other option.