stupid or arrogant?

[anotheranon]

The first thing I thought when I heard about the Atlanta man who flew all over Europe with active extensively drug resistant TB was "What an idiot". Maybe I've just been reading too much but it seemed obvious to me that tuberculosis is a serious disease no matter how you cut it, and the fact that it's resistant to almost all of the antibiotics thrown at it would convince, I would think, people of average intelligence to stay home and take their medicine.

Now that I've read his side of the story I'm coming to the cranky conclusion that the guy's just an asshole: he was advised not to travel and did so anyway and when ordered to turn himself in for isolation and treatment he promptly jumped another plane across the Atlantic with full knowledge that his passport was flagged, etc.

I'd have some sympathy if he first got the diagnosis while on his honeymoon and was afraid of facing a serious illness on his own in a foreign country - I imagine that would be terrifying spur of the moment news, and anyone might have done something stupid in that situation. But he knew before he left for his Big Fat European Wedding that he wasn't responding to treatment, and given that his new father in law is a TB researcher (!) I find it impossible to believe he didn't know how serious his illness was!

Nah, he's "a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person", and as such is special - he shouldn't have his life inconvenienced in the name of not infecting who knows how many family, friends and strangers </sarcasm>

Jayzus, I know that there's a careful balance to be kept between civil liberties and public health but it seems to me this guy was completely self-centered. Massive coverage/analysis by actual science/doctor types at Scienceblogs.

Comments

[flummoxicated.livejournal.com]

He's a rich lawyer and therefore is entitled to bend or break the law - nothing must interrupt his wedding in Greece to Barbie!

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

I respectfully disagree. His strain is not highly infectious, his sputum shows no TB in it, and frankly I wouldn't want to be quarantined in Italy, either. I would have jumped, too, to avoid the no-fly list and scampered back through Canada to New York. He *did* come back as soon as they told him he was dangerous. This is one of those huge blowups that the media likes to make up to scare people. :)

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I respectfully stick to my guns - the CDC did not tell him to come home, they ordered him to go into isolation because he WAS infectious, with a strain of TB that doesn't respond to most of the first- and second-line drugs.

His rush home on a transatlantic flight with canned air put MANY people at risk for catching a serious disease, and based on the fact that his new father in law works in tuberculosis research he cannot have failed to understand how dangerous that is. Forgive me if I have very little sympathy for the man.

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

This isn't to disagree that the moron shouldn't have got on an airplane. It's that the CDC says one thing, and the doctors say another. My vote is with the doctors at National Jewish, who treat this sort of thing regularly.

The CDC delayed notifying him, yes, and that was the heart of the problem. But doctors had a different take on the situation, as seen at the site you quote:

http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/2007/06/01/0602meshdenver.html

Denver — The health scare hysteria surrounding an Atlanta man with a dangerous strain of tuberculosis bears little relationship to the reality of the low risk he poses to others, doctors treating the man at a Denver hospital said Friday.

"He's about as noninfectious as you can be," said Dr. Charles Daley, chief of infectious disease at National Jewish Medical and Research Center, where Andrew Speaker is undergoing treatment for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. "It's gotten attention undeservedly — at least in terms of this fear," Daley said.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

This article is an update I've not seen before. I was under the impression that he was infectious, and that was why the CDC encouraged him not to travel and insisted he get himself into isolation once he got to Rome.

So, OK, he's not shedding bacteria - this is GOOD news. But I still think it's irresponsible to travel with an illness that severe. TB is still a Big Bad in the public health arena, XDR even more so.

I'm hoping my friend L. is reading and can weigh in - she works in public health and likely has a more informed perspective than either of us.