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According to Fox 28, a woman is in isolation after being treated for what’s called “Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis.” A rare case of tuberculosis has health officials scrambling on hundreds of people who may have been exposed.
The strain of tuberculosis is dangerous, but it and can be treated by multiple drugs.The centers for disease control started with a woman with the disease arriving on a flight from India into Chicago’s O’Hare Airport seven weeks ago.The woman was aware of her disease, traveling to Chicago to get medical help. She had been treated in India on more than one occasion and officials say she never completed the therapy.
Health officials are worried because she traveled to other states such as Missouri and Tennessee. Authorities in all three states are working to find out who she was in contact with so they can notify them along with passengers on her flight from India.
Tuberculosis requires close contact but can be spread through the air. It is not contagious like a cold or flu. It’s not likely that anyone on the plane was infected, but health officials don’t want to take any chances.
Those that were in her row or two rows in front or behind will be tested and monitored for two months if they have the infection. She is being treated at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. She’s in isolation and in stable condition.
