TB traveler questions CDC's actions!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070706/ap_on_he_me/tuberculosis_infection
ATLANTA - The globe-trotting tuberculosis patient who sparked an international public health incident in May said Friday he was tricked into a federal quarantine.
Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta attorney, he would have gladly gone into isolation if health officials had asked him to. Instead, he said they asked him to swing by a New York City hospital for testing after his European vacation, then posted armed guards outside his door.
"They tried to trick me when it was unnecessary," Speaker said, said in a telephone interview from a Colorado hospital where he has been under treatment for a month.
Speaker, the first person quarantined by the U.S. government since 1963, disclosed new details about the discussions he had with health officials while in Europe, and about an aborted plan in which he would have driven to Denver for treatment after he returned.
He said he has no current plans to sue health officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other government agencies.
"I'm worried about people coming after me," he said in a lengthy interview with The Associated Press.
Speaker became the focus of a CDC investigation - and an international uproar - when proceeded in May with a long-planned wedding trip to Europe after health officials said they advised him not to fly.
CDC officials also said a May 22 test result indicated Speaker had extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, which is extremely difficult to treat. But Speaker's doctors said this week that subsequent testing has shown only the less-dangerous multidrug-resistant TB.
Speaker said the XDR diagnosis escalated media coverage and made him internationally vilified. In a two-page statement posted Friday on his law firm blog, he said: "I can only hope that this news calms the fears of those people that were on the flights with me."
He also noted that an early May CDC lab result - from a test which looks for evidence of drug resistance in TB bacteria genes - showed the less dangerous TB.
CDC officials said that test is experimental and had to be confirmed with more standard testing. They stand by the May 22 test, and said the public health response should be the same regardless.
The quarantine order was driven in part because Speaker flew to Europe after state and local health officials advised him not to travel in commercial aircraft, then he flew home from Italy after a CDC official repeated and emphasized the same message, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.
"He had shown a history," Skinner said Friday. "He had left to go, and he had left to come back, against orders."
Speaker argued that county health officials told him he was not a danger to his fiancee or others, and did not forbid him from traveling.
"They said, 'You don't need to be sequestered.' How can they turn around later and say, 'You should have been in isolation'?" Speaker said.
In Rome, Speaker said he got a message to call CDC official Dr. David Kim. It was then that Speaker said he first heard of the XDR diagnosis.
Kim asked them to cancel a planned train trip to Florence and said he would get back to the couple with news of travel arrangements back to the United States for treatment, Speaker said Friday.
They stayed in Rome. When Speaker called Kim the next night, Kim offered only two options: Go into isolation in Italy, or pay for a private air ambulance. Speaker said he couldn't afford the air ambulance, and didn't want to spend as long as two years in an Italian hospital.
Kim ended the conversation by suggesting, "Get some fresh air, get something to eat, because I know it's been a stressful day," Speaker recalled. Speaker and his wife then booked flights to travel through the Czech Republic to Montreal.
But Skinner said Kim would not have advised Speaker to mingle in crowds. "He advised cancellation of the train trip," Skinner noted.
Speaker said he talked with a CDC official after he crossed the U.S. border, and the official asked him to go to a New York hospital for testing, to make sure his condition had not changed. In the hospital room, a health official walked in holding faxed copy of a quarantine order, he said.
"It was the first time anyone ever mentioned an isolation order to me," Speaker said.
After he was transferred to an Atlanta hospital, officials suggested Speaker drive cross-country with his wife to Denver for treatment. But that was canceled when Speaker's health insurer agreed to pay for an air ambulance, Speaker said.
Skinner confirmed that account. "He would have been accompanied by public health personnel all along the way," he said.
Does he look arrogant to you?
ATLANTA - The globe-trotting tuberculosis patient who sparked an international public health incident in May said Friday he was tricked into a federal quarantine.
Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta attorney, he would have gladly gone into isolation if health officials had asked him to. Instead, he said they asked him to swing by a New York City hospital for testing after his European vacation, then posted armed guards outside his door.
"They tried to trick me when it was unnecessary," Speaker said, said in a telephone interview from a Colorado hospital where he has been under treatment for a month.
Speaker, the first person quarantined by the U.S. government since 1963, disclosed new details about the discussions he had with health officials while in Europe, and about an aborted plan in which he would have driven to Denver for treatment after he returned.
He said he has no current plans to sue health officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or other government agencies.
"I'm worried about people coming after me," he said in a lengthy interview with The Associated Press.
Speaker became the focus of a CDC investigation - and an international uproar - when proceeded in May with a long-planned wedding trip to Europe after health officials said they advised him not to fly.
CDC officials also said a May 22 test result indicated Speaker had extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, which is extremely difficult to treat. But Speaker's doctors said this week that subsequent testing has shown only the less-dangerous multidrug-resistant TB.
Speaker said the XDR diagnosis escalated media coverage and made him internationally vilified. In a two-page statement posted Friday on his law firm blog, he said: "I can only hope that this news calms the fears of those people that were on the flights with me."
He also noted that an early May CDC lab result - from a test which looks for evidence of drug resistance in TB bacteria genes - showed the less dangerous TB.
CDC officials said that test is experimental and had to be confirmed with more standard testing. They stand by the May 22 test, and said the public health response should be the same regardless.
The quarantine order was driven in part because Speaker flew to Europe after state and local health officials advised him not to travel in commercial aircraft, then he flew home from Italy after a CDC official repeated and emphasized the same message, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.
"He had shown a history," Skinner said Friday. "He had left to go, and he had left to come back, against orders."
Speaker argued that county health officials told him he was not a danger to his fiancee or others, and did not forbid him from traveling.
"They said, 'You don't need to be sequestered.' How can they turn around later and say, 'You should have been in isolation'?" Speaker said.
In Rome, Speaker said he got a message to call CDC official Dr. David Kim. It was then that Speaker said he first heard of the XDR diagnosis.
Kim asked them to cancel a planned train trip to Florence and said he would get back to the couple with news of travel arrangements back to the United States for treatment, Speaker said Friday.
They stayed in Rome. When Speaker called Kim the next night, Kim offered only two options: Go into isolation in Italy, or pay for a private air ambulance. Speaker said he couldn't afford the air ambulance, and didn't want to spend as long as two years in an Italian hospital.
Kim ended the conversation by suggesting, "Get some fresh air, get something to eat, because I know it's been a stressful day," Speaker recalled. Speaker and his wife then booked flights to travel through the Czech Republic to Montreal.
But Skinner said Kim would not have advised Speaker to mingle in crowds. "He advised cancellation of the train trip," Skinner noted.
Speaker said he talked with a CDC official after he crossed the U.S. border, and the official asked him to go to a New York hospital for testing, to make sure his condition had not changed. In the hospital room, a health official walked in holding faxed copy of a quarantine order, he said.
"It was the first time anyone ever mentioned an isolation order to me," Speaker said.
After he was transferred to an Atlanta hospital, officials suggested Speaker drive cross-country with his wife to Denver for treatment. But that was canceled when Speaker's health insurer agreed to pay for an air ambulance, Speaker said.
Skinner confirmed that account. "He would have been accompanied by public health personnel all along the way," he said.
Does he look arrogant to you?
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This idiot should have his head smashed in with a brick. 0 -
I think that he should be select-fire's next victim. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by phillip
This idiot should have his head smashed in with a brick.
why? for trying to get to the only hospital that could save him (the one in Denver) AFTER doctors said he was not in a contagious phase?
Would YOU wait for Fed incompetents to get you a special transport to the right hospital to save your life???
It was the doctors who said he was in a non-contagious phase, or somethinglike that. The CDC spun it to make him the next Typhiod Mary.
These are the same CDC government gentlemans who recommend that babies be vaccinated against hepatitis B [xx(][V]
Now whom do you believe?0 -
quote:Originally posted by KSUmarksman
quote:Originally posted by phillip
This idiot should have his head smashed in with a brick.
why? for trying to get to the only hospital that could save him (the one in Denver) AFTER doctors said he was not in a contagious phase?
Would YOU wait for Fed incompetents to get you a special transport to the right hospital to save your life???
No, because he flew to Italy on a commercial airliner when he knew he had TB because "He had plans".0 -
quote:Originally posted by KSUmarksman
quote:Originally posted by phillip
This idiot should have his head smashed in with a brick.
why? for trying to get to the only hospital that could save him (the one in Denver) AFTER doctors said he was not in a contagious phase?
Would YOU wait for Fed incompetents to get you a special transport to the right hospital to save your life???
Via a plane?????? 3 countries? several stops in between????Would you question his actions if you were on one of those planes with him?Come on.0 -
quote:Originally posted by phillip
quote:Originally posted by KSUmarksman
quote:Originally posted by phillip
This idiot should have his head smashed in with a brick.
why? for trying to get to the only hospital that could save him (the one in Denver) AFTER doctors said he was not in a contagious phase?
Would YOU wait for Fed incompetents to get you a special transport to the right hospital to save your life???
Via a plane?????? 3 countries? several stops in between????Would you question his actions if you were on one of those planes with him?Come on.
I've seen the special regarding this "crisis". My understanding is that the tuberculosis was contained to 'tubercules' within his lungs. Now it does mean that those could rupture and he'd have full blown tuberculosis again, but he did not at the time. If they did rupture I doubt that his doctors would recommend trying to cut the tubercules out.0 -
No need for one to be either a Doctor ... or much less a New York Lawyer to understand that tuberculosis, "the scourge of mankind", is a waaaaay contagious and serious illness.
"You don't need to be sequestered."
Please!!!
[xx(][xx(][xx(]0 -
Ive seen bits of it as well,I tuned out as i think he should not have gone any where without properly preparing for his globe trotting trips.I saw where some doctors said "There was almost no risk" for transmission of this crap.My point is, he knew,And he still went with no regard to his fellow man.Seems selfish and dangerious to me. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by phillip
some doctors said "There was almost no risk" for transmission of this crap.
Have sent home for one week key players from my staff for much lesser offenses such as chickenpox, conjunctivitis, and gastroenteritis.0 -
quote:Originally posted by KSUmarksman
quote:Originally posted by phillip
quote:Originally posted by KSUmarksman
quote:Originally posted by phillip
This idiot should have his head smashed in with a brick.
why? for trying to get to the only hospital that could save him (the one in Denver) AFTER doctors said he was not in a contagious phase?
Would YOU wait for Fed incompetents to get you a special transport to the right hospital to save your life???
Via a plane?????? 3 countries? several stops in between????Would you question his actions if you were on one of those planes with him?Come on.
I've seen the special regarding this "crisis". My understanding is that the tuberculosis was contained to 'tubercules' within his lungs. Now it does mean that those could rupture and he'd have full blown tuberculosis again, but he did not at the time. If they did rupture I doubt that his doctors would recommend trying to cut the tubercules out.
Sorry but this guy is a piece of crap that has no regards for others around him. What a arrogant self serving piece of poop. Go figure he's a lawyer. Hopefully he will be brought up on charges similar to people with HIV exposing others to it intentionally.0 -
I read here on GB that it was illegal aliens coming in from Mexico that were the source of all sorts of dangerous diseases, including TB. First the VT shooter turns out not to be a Muslim fanatic and now this walking TB ward is found not to be an illegal (although he is a lawyer). I am slowly loseing faith in the Gun Broker gangs warnings and may drop my gaurd against zombies. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by kristov
I am slowly loseing faith in the Gun Broker gangs warnings and may drop my gaurd against zombies.
Ironically, we are the same gang whom would rather put away a Coyote humanely, but at the same time, let our own parents slowly wither away painfully in a long term care facility.0 -
quote:Originally posted by Polite Psycho
quote:Originally posted by kristov
I am slowly loseing faith in the Gun Broker gangs warnings and may drop my gaurd against zombies.
Ironically, we are the same gang whom would rather put away a Coyote humanely, but at the same time, let our own parents slowly wither away painfully in a long term care facility.
+10 -
Polite et al; How do you suggest old parents be handled? Put them away before sending them to nursing home? Please clarify your answer. It seem you want to kill them before placing them in nursing home? Surely not. Most people now have both family members working and just cannot be at home to take of mom when she cannot take care of herself. Tom 0 -
I know it may sound like the boy who cried wolf, but you gotta believe us, the zombies are coming.
Do NOT let your guard down against them!!!0 -
I don't think any of us knows the full story, but it sounds to me like this guy acted extremely irresponsibly.
TB is not a disease to be taken lightly. He should not have been traveling. I'm not a medical professional and even I know that 'vanilla' strains of TB require careful management. An XDR strain requires extreme management.
And then we hear that this guy has not XDR-TB (Extreme drug resistant TB) but the lesser MDR-TB (Multiple Drug Resistant TB). And his response is to issue a statement suggesting that the CDC wrecked his reputation? CDC was entirely correct in suggesting that their response to an MDR-TB case would have been the same as their response to an XDR-TB case. HE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN TRAVELING!
feh! I hope his 2-year hospital stay feels like prison to him, because he deserves it.
The alternative scenario is that he's telling the whole truth about the information he got from the CDC before he traveled, in which case we all need to fear deeply for the public health, because any public health institution that does not treat ANY TB case as a potential emergency is not doing its job. I seriously doubt this is the case.0 -
Sure he would have GLADLY have done what they wanted if they had ASKED but they tried to trick him.
Want to bet whether he files suit against the CDC and the doctors involved for ruining his reputation ?0 -
I have a hard time picking the right side.
A lying lawyer vs. incompetent bureaucrats.0 -
Perhaps if he's secluded like this and only travel to and from IRA>I and Afghanistan while serving our nation, might be more acceptable [}:)][}:)][}:)]. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by tccox
It seem you want to kill them before placing them in nursing home? Surely not.
I in no way advocate murdering your parents, or mine.
My point is that vast numbers of elders live in infrahuman conditions and are neglected by the system, be it government, family or church. Moreover, the media and special interest groups would much rather make an issue of the treatment given to animals - form chickens to baby seals - but at the same time ignore the way we care for our elders.
Hope my message is now clear.0
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