US traveler with deadly TB has less serious strain

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

MIAMI (AFP) — A US tuberculosis patient under mandatory isolation since his Greek wedding and Italian honeymoon is infected with a less serious strain of the disease than initially thought, doctors said on Tuesday.

Andrew Speaker's wedding travels, including seven flights and an overland trip from Canada, triggered a global health alert two months ago when the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said he was infected with a potentially deadly strain of tuberculosis generally irresponsive to drug treatment.

"We have been able to demonstrate he does not have XDR-TB, or extensively drug-resistant TB," said Charles Daley of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado, where Speaker is being treated.

Daley, who heads the hospital's...