Fear of flying with tuberculosis

One unglamorous truth about airplane travel is that it is a place where several hundred people are trapped for hours in a confined space, coughing, breathing on one another and sharing germs.

Nowhere is this more true and upsetting than in the case of a budding groom from Georgia with a dangerous form of tuberculosis. This Atlantan simply had to get to Europe and back on two trans-Atlantic flights for his wedding. He didn't care that he was potentially infecting numerous fellow passengers and flight attendants. Obviously, the passenger is self-absorbed.

Health officials say Andrew Speaker was advised not to fly. The 31-year-old personal-injury attorney from Atlanta knew he could expose others when he boarded a jet from Atlanta to Paris and later from Prague to Montreal.

There may have been a communication breakdown on the outbound leg, when the man says he was aware of a suggestion, nothing more, to stay home.

But authorities subsequently contacted him in Europe to tell him he should not fly back because further testing revealed he had a rare, "extensively drug-resistant" form of TB. His TB is so dangerous he is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963.

First and foremost, the government must do all it can to track down the innocents who sat a few rows in front of or behind Speaker. They are the victims. They need to be tested. They also need full information.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week that several passengers had been unable to get the airlines or the Centers for Disease Control to tell them where the man was sitting on the aircraft. How ridiculous. After a day or two, the CDC released the seating information. What could possibly explain not doing so? Information is power.

This story, this passenger's conduct, highlights an important health issue: At what point does a passenger police himself to protect others? A congressional hearing will be held next week to determine if the government did enough to protect the public.

Thousands of passengers fly every day, landing in good health. But one bad apple can compound the angst of flying. This case should become the template for determining how to proceed with similar cases in the future.