There's a very nasty strain of tuberculosis that is resistant to many drugs (XDR-TB). It's not all that common (2 cases per year in the US). But unfortunately, an XDR-TB infected patient flew on some commercial airline flights, exposing a number of unsuspecting people to this dangerous disease. The risk of illness to others is low, but the search is on to find people who traveled on these flights with the XDR-TB patient.
This brings up serious questions of how to deal with patients who carry dangerous contagious diseases. Can they be confined against their will? Prevented from traveling? What is the fine line between protecting the public and personal freedom?
2 comments:
It would be nice if everyone had a sense of responsibility and wouldn't want to risk infecting others. Last week I was at the American Thoracic Society trying to get lung docs to look at the eye of patients with pulmonary fibrosis (all people with albinism aren't blonde ya know - grin). I heard this really interesting lecture from a guy that studies infectious disease talking about how little we actually know about the microbe world and how there are probably infectious diseases underlying a lot of ideopathic (sp?) illnesses - we just can'd find the microbe or culture the little things. It was really interesting. So, what if there are more infectious critters out there than we know of? And, what if we all inherit a genetic weakness for certian microbes - could we all be carrying something nasty and dangerous for someone else? I was wondering.....but didn't have the nerve to ask. Grin! I was also wondering if this might possibly explain the wide variance of age of onset of certian complications in genetic disorders like HPS?
Thank GOD I wasn't on that plane - geesh, the last thing my lungs need! I get pissed off when my neighbors smoke in the laundry room and it wafts up to my apartment. Here I am working hard and spending thousands to keep my lungs working, and they're down there ruining their lungs and sending the smoke up to my apartment.
Nice to read you, Heather!
It was also disturbing how the CDC didn't seem to have much of a plan in place to deal with this health crisis. We need to be ready for these things.
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