US tuberculosis traveler leaves hospital

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

DENVER, United States (AFP) — A US lawyer who sparked a global health scare by crossing the Atlantic while infected with a potentially lethal tuberculosis strain emerged Thursday from weeks of hospital isolation, the clinic said.

The National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado, discharged Andrew Speaker "after the successful completion of his in-patient treatment for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis," it said in a statement.

Speaker had been flown there eight weeks ago from his home town of Atlanta, Georgia, after health authorities seized him when he returned from the epic journey. Surgery on July 17 removed part of his lung.

Doctors said he had defied their warnings not to travel after being diagnosed with the disease.

After...