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WASHINGTON - An American lawyer with a potentially fatal form of tuberculosis who travelled to Europe against the advice of his doctors and then snuck back into the US through Canada, was yesterday undergoing treatment under armed guard, amid a national outcry at his behaviour.
The man, Andrew
Speaker, 31, is in danger of becoming a latter-day 'Typhoid Mary' as details emerge of the lengths he went to ignore medical advice, to the extent of refusing to remain in his hotel room in Rome when contacted by experts from the US Centers for Disease Control.
He now has the distinction of becoming the first person to be quarantined on US government orders since 1963.
In another twist to the tale it has emerged that Mr Speaker's father-in-law, Robert Cooksey, is himself a TB specialist at the Centers for Disease Control.
Mr Cooksey said that he was 'not involved' in his son-in-law's decision to travel to Europe, and that the TB strain did not come from the CDC's labs 'which operate under the highest levels of biosecurity.' Mr Speaker flew from his home in Atlanta to Paris on 12 May on Air France, then travelled to Greece to get married before honeymooning in Rome.
He then flew from Prague to Canada, where he rented a car to cross the US border at which point he was intercepted but not detained.
Amid mounting hysteria over the possibility that he infected hundreds of others on his travels there were worries about the country's ability to protect itself from potential biological pandemics.
Mr Speaker is now beginning his treatment for XDR TB an extremely drug resistant strain of the disease in a Denver hospital, which may involve part of his lung being removed.
Meanwhile a witchhunt was under way to discover why he had been allowed to travel in the first place and why he was not detained upon re-entering the country from Canada, despite the fact that he was being sought by health authorities.
A customs agent who ran Mr Speaker's passport through a computer at the border and then ignored a warning to hold the traveller, put on a face mask and call the authorities, has been removed from border duty.
He says let him into the US because he looked healthy.
Mr Speaker's case has also revived memories of a New York woman who became infamous in the early 20th century as Typhoid Mary.
She infected score of people with typhus fever and despite promising not to work in kitchens, she obscured her identity to work as a hospital cook, killing several people in the process.
Eventually tracked down she was quarantined for the remaining 23 years of her life.
Congressional hearings are to be convened on the case and politicians have called for a wide-scale review of security at border crossings, concerned that despite all the anti-terrorism measures enacted over the years, the US remains vulnerable.
One Senator, Susan Collins of Maine said the incident 'highlights how vulnerable our security remains and raises considerable doubts about the nations preparedness for pandemic influenza and other biological incidents.'
A successful personal injury lawyer in Atlanta, Mr Speaker was yesterday described as 'tired, cooperative, emotional and concerned about the publicity his case was receiving'.
He also appeared - complete with facemask - on Good Morning America to beg forgiveness of any passengers he may have exposed to virulent TB.
But viewers also learned of the lengths he took to flout medical advice, following his diagnosis earlier this year.
He has released a transcript of tape recorded meetings with his doctors, in which they told the groom-to-be that he should not travel abroad, but did not categorically instruct him not to go.
He has queried why nobody told him to cancel his wedding before he left Atlanta - and why the authorities waited until he was on his honeymoon in Rome to order him into isolation.
"I'm a very well-educated, successful, intelligent person," he said.
"This is insane to me that I have an armed guard outside my door when I've cooperated with everything other than the whole solitary confinement in Italy thing."
- INDEPENDENT
