How do you contract drug resistant TB - I always associated it

[elfin]

with Russian prisoners or inner city drug users in crowded conditions.

CDC says he is not now "very infectious" - and his wife is negative.

Was he fooling around in his father-in-law's lab?

What is the story here?

[cynatnite]

1. airborne virus...

I was exposed to TB when I worked in a hospital some years ago.

[Ecumenist]

8. airborne BACTERIA.... a pet peeve of mine.

I don't mean to be rude at all..:hi: I especially hate it when I read comments about "flesh-eating virus" and it' a bacteria.



It is VERY CONTAGIOUS...

[cynatnite]

9. You're right

I wrote in haste :hi:

[xmas74]

2. A friend was exposed a few years back

on a college campus. They had an international community and someone brought it w/ them.

[rox63]

3. Maybe the father-in-law doesn't like his new son-in-law

So he brought him home a little present from the office.

[JuniperLea]

4. very infectious - wife doesn't have it

Doesn't quite make sense, now does it?

[deadmessengers]

5. "not very infectious"

He's not very infectious right now - minimal risk of transmission.

[JuniperLea]

7. Oh sure... that's why they have him secluded...

And even his wife is wearing a mask... and they have upped the search from the longer flights to include the shorter flights in Europe.

[deadmessengers]

10. It's just risk management.

They're practicing sound risk management here. Risk management is pretty simple: you look at the number of incidents that could be expected to occur if no preventative measures are taken, multiply that by the potential loss per incident, and if that's greater than the cost of taking those preventative measures, then you do it.

In this case, you're looking at a low rate of infection (the number of incidents), but with a VERY high potential loss (TB is expensive to treat, and this kind kills half the people who get it). TB tests, on the other hand, are cheap and simple to do, which is why they're suggesting that people who were on those flights (and thus potentially exposed) get tested.

Let's put it this way: On average, the risk of being infected with HIV via unprotected receptive anal sex with an infected partner is about 1.5% per sex act. Not bad odds, right? But the risk is enormous (a lifetime of extremely expensive drugs, or a virtually certain horrible death), so we tell people to insist that their partners wear a condom. Because although the odds aren't awful, the potential damage is enormous.

The same principle applies here - minimal odds (a low infection rate), but high mortality. Since the mortality rate goes up the longer the disease is allowed to progress, it's better to catch it early than risk an epidemic of a very nasty (and damn near untreatable) strain of TB.

[Mutineer]

6. He'd apparently traveled extensively in third-world countries

over the past 6 years. They may never figure out where he got it from. The father-in-law is claiming that they don't even keep the particular strain the son-in-law has in the lab at the CDC.

[AZBlue]

11. Welcome to DU (belatedly)!

:hi:

[Red State Rebel]

12. My Daughter Contracted TB at Age 2

She got it from a Child Care provider. The problem - they informed us, is that with adults, the germ is carried at the top of the lungs where it can be spread with a cough, etc. Luckily with children it is in the bottom of the lung and thus not easily spread. You can also have it and it not be "active". You can carry the disease in "tuburcules" in the lungs and until they burst from being weakened by a cold, etc. you won't be really contagious.

I'm trying to recall all of this from 22 years ago so I may have some things wrong. We were fortunate that Lori was healed after over a year of antibiotic treatment. The babysitter ended up with her marriage destroyed because of the quarrantine situation.