Traveler’s TB Not as Severe as Officials Thought

New York Times: By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

New tests of the Atlanta lawyer who caused an international health scare by traveling abroad with tuberculosis show that the form of the disease he has is not as severe as originally thought, federal officials and his doctors said yesterday....

Although the confusion as to who knew what and when was never completely explained, one fact was clear: Mr. Speaker had extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, the hardest possible variety to cure, and it had been identified by the disease center in Atlanta.

Except that he did not have XDR-TB, the disease center and the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, where he has been a patient in isolation since June 1, said yesterday. A series of new tests at both institutions shows that Mr. Speaker has multiple-drug-resistant TB, or MDR-TB, still dangerous, but susceptible to more drug treatments. ...

The test findings also raised questions about the accuracy of TB tests at the C.D.C., a national and reference laboratory for the disease. The center reported in May that its tests showed that Mr. Speaker had XDR-TB, based on cultures from a lung procedure, a bronchoscopy, at a hospital in Atlanta. ...

In a statement expressing relief that he did not have the most severe form and harshly criticizing the government’s actions in his case, Mr. Speaker said his case had been misdiagnosed.