Three Arkansas residents who were on a flight with the Atlanta lawyer who traveled to Europe and back with a dangerous form of tuberculosis are being evaluated to make sure they are not infected.
Unrelated cases of TB also have been reported in the case of a nurse at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and a student at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. Those cases are the kind of TB that respond to medications, officials said.
A spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services said none of the three on the international flight with Andrew Speaker is currently sick and the tests are precautionary. Spokesman Ed Barham said they were on a flight from Atlanta to Paris with Speaker.
Speaker, now in government-ordered isolation in a Denver hospital, went to Europe for his wedding trip, creating an international health scare. Speaker said he discussed his situation with health officials before the trip and they did not order him to stay at home.
The response of state and federal health employees is being investigated.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been trying to track down others who might be at risk.
The patient at LSU is in isolation and is responding to treatment, hospital spokesman Derek Daniel said. He said hospital officials are in contact with patients who might have come in contact with her to make sure they show no symptoms of TB.
At Southern Arkansas University, officials said a 22-year-old international student has an active case of tuberculosis, a potentially deadly infection that primarily affects the lungs. The university sent letters out to others who might have had contact with the unidentified male student, but all tests so far have been negative, officials said.