Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB): Quarantine and Isolation (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
June 5, 2007 |
| Report Number |
RS22672 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Kathleen S. Swendiman and Nancy Lee Jones, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The recent international saga of a traveler with XDR-TB, a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, has placed a spotlight on existing mechanisms to contain contagious disease threats and raised numerous legal and public-health issues. This report will briefly address the existing law relating to quarantine and isolation, with an emphasis on the interaction of state and federal laws and international agreements. It will not be updated. On May 12, 2007, a man with tuberculosis flew from Atlanta, Georgia, to Paris, France. After his wedding in Greece, he went to Rome, Italy, where he was contacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and told that he had XDR-TB, a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis with a cure rate of approximately 30%-50%. He was told that he should not get on an airplane and that his passport was the subject of a no-fly order. However, fearing he would not be able to return to the United States for treatment, he flew to Canada and entered the United States by car on May 24. Although CDC had alerted the Atlanta office of Customs and Border Protection in the Homeland Security Department, he was not stopped at the border. CDC contacted him and he voluntarily went to a hospital in New York. He was then flown to an Atlanta hospital. CDC issued a federal order of isolation under the Public Health Service Act, the first since 1963. The patient was flown to the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver for treatment.
