IN JUNE an American, Andrew Speaker, caused a media storm by flying from Europe to Canada, while supposedly infected with extremely drug resistant TB (XDR-TB). It turned out to be a more treatable strain and none of his fellow passengers became infected.
However, back in October 2006, another man who genuinely was a threat flew unnoticed from Beirut, Lebanon, to Paris, France. Unlike Speaker, he was coughing up bacteria-laden sputum, and died 10 days later of XDR-TB that had resisted nine drugs – possibly due to poorly managed treatment in Chechnya, the Russian republic where he had been living.
French…
