U.S. health officials said Tuesday that they have issued a rare federal order of isolation to detain a Georgia man diagnosed with a highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis after he flew on international flights to Paris and Montreal, potentially infecting fellow travelers.

The unidentified patient had been undergoing TB treatment at an Atlanta clinic. Doctors told him not to travel, but he chose to do so for unspecified "compelling reasons," said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He may not have known when he left the USA that he was infected with a dangerous form of the bacteria known as extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, Gerberding said, but was informed of that while in Europe.

A CDC quarantine officer placed the man in a hotel in Italy, the CDC's Martin Cetron said, and "advised him he should not get on a commercial flight. He needed to stay put." But instead, he traveled to Prague and boarded a flight to Montreal, then drove into the USA. Read More

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