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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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Doctors Give TB Fugitive Good News

Runaway lawyer's disease less dangerous than initially thought

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(Newser) – TB patient Andrew Speaker is not quite as sick as planeloads of people feared, Reuters reports. A doctor from Speaker's Denver hospital says the Atlanta lawyer, who flew to Europe despite warnings that he was highly contagious, doesn't have XDR—or extensively drug-resistant—tuberculosis, but rather the more treatable multi-drug-resistant strain.

Docs warn that MDR is fatal and requires months to treat, and they say Speaker's federal quarantine—the first in 44 years—was warranted. But Speaker, who maintains that doctors told him he was not a threat, released a statement saying he hopes news of his "misdiagnosis" will allay his fellow passengers' fears. Authorities are still searching for those passengers.

This file handout photo released by the Public Affairs Office of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, shows tuberculosis patient Andrew Speaker in his isolation room at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Wednesday, June 6, 2007. Doctors treating the Atlanta attorney with tuberculosis who touched...
This file handout photo released by the Public Affairs Office of the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, shows tuberculosis patient Andrew Speaker in his isolation room at the National Jewish...   (Associated Press)
In this image made from television and released by ABC News, Andrew Speaker, right and his wife Sarah are interviewed at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo on
In this image made from television and released by ABC News, Andrew Speaker, right and his wife Sarah are interviewed at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo on "Good Morning America"...   (Associated Press)
In this image made from television and released by ABC News, Andrew Speaker speaks through a face mask from National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo during a
In this image made from television and released by ABC News, Andrew Speaker speaks through a face mask from National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo during a "Good Morning America"...   (Associated Press)
This undated photo released by the University of Georgia School of Law on Thursday May 31, 2007 shows Andrew Speaker at the John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Ga. Andrew Speaker, 31, who has a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis that has proved resistant to drugs is under the...
This undated photo released by the University of Georgia School of Law on Thursday May 31, 2007 shows Andrew Speaker at the John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Ga. Andrew Speaker, 31, who has a rare...   (Associated Press)
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Revisited: the Exclusive ABC Interview
ABC News

Coverage from Speaker's hometown
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

More details of the testing and treatment
USA Today


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