TB Strains on a Plane

Another passenger on American Airlines flight #293 from New Delhi to Chicago in mid-December has tested positive for tuberculosis, according to the CDC. The passenger was sitting near an actively coughing woman with drug-resistant TB, who was hospitalized 1 week later in California for active disease. However, it is unknown if the newly identified infected passenger, who is not considered a health threat, acquired TB from the index case or in India, where TB is endemic.

According to Fox News, WHO guidelines indicate that 44 passengers sitting within 2 rows of the index case were considered at risk for infection, and the CDC oversaw the testing of 27 passengers. The remaining passengers were TB carriers already or had returned to their home countries before they could be tested.

The infected California woman (who is a native Nepalese) was hospitalized for more than 2 months in isolation and is now confined to her home for several more weeks, while treatment is ongoing. To eradicate the disease, 2 more years of medical therapy may be required, according to a quoted health official.

Fox News reports that doctors have no way to determine if the TB strains of the 2 passengers match. This conclusion is presumably due to the fact that the newly infected passenger does not have active disease, and therefore, this passenger's TB strain cannot be cultured and typed for comparison purposes.