Woman Who May Have Spread Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis is Being Treated in Maryland

A woman infected with a highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis and who may have spread the disease on her travels is now being treated in Maryland's National Institutes of Health.

The woman traveled from India to the O'Hare Airport in Chicago on April 4, according to the New York Times. She then spent some time to visit relatives in Illinois, Tennessee, and Missouri. The patient sought for medical attention on the third week of May at a hospital in Illinois.

Her test result was positive with XDR-TB, a highly drug-resistant tuberculosis. Because of this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the health department of the state were notified to trace anyone who came in contact with the patient.

The Indian woman has since been transferred to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland by air and ground ambulances.

"CDC will obtain the passenger manifest for [the India to Chicago] flight from the airline and will begin a contact investigation. Although the risk of getting a contagious disease on an airplane is low, public health officers sometimes need to find and alert travelers who may have been exposed to an ill passenger," said a CDC spokesperson, as quoted by Time.

The N.I.H. facility has a higher success rate of treating patients with XDR-TB at 80 percent than other countries with only 30 percent to 50 percent, according to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Although the chances of being infected with TB are low, it is not entirely impossible. That is why the CDC is tracking down the people whom the patient may have come in contact with.

According to CBS News, the woman has long been diagnosed with the disease in her home country, India.

"It's not just a matter of months," Dr. Fauci said. "It's likely been a few years that she's had TB."

He added that the patient has sought treatment in many places and it was only known that the TB microbe was resistant when she was admitted in the Maryland facility.

In the report by NY Times, 12 people who have come in contact with the patient were identified in Illinois. They were given TB tests but results have not been revealed as it takes eight to 10 weeks for the infection to show up. For Tennessee and Missouri states, contacts are still being traced.

All people who have been infected are to be treated before the disease becomes infectious, according to Communicable Disease Coordinator Susan Karras.

XDR-TB is rare in the U.S. with less than 70 cases reported from 1993 to 2011. It mostly affects people with weakened immune systems like those suffering from HIV.