All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella covered the tuberculosis scare story from Atlanta last night. She is now in Denver, where patient Andrew Speaker is being treated.

---

When I met Laney Wiggins and Jason Vik, they were wrapping up their fourth or fifth interview of the day at a television studio in Atlanta. As recent international travelers, the two 20-somethings find themselves wrapped up in a trans-Atlantic health scare.

Laney Wiggins is a senior at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. She and Vik, a university alumnus, went on a school-sponsored trip to Europe earlier this month. It just so happened they were on the same plane as the now-infamous globe-trotting TB patient, Andrew Speaker.

They've both been tested. Laney showed me the red splotch on her arm where the test had been done. "I think I'm OK," she told me.

An eraser-sized bump would mean she was positive for TB. Her arm was red, but flat. She goes back to the health department Friday afternoon for her results.

Read full post…

Making headlines this week is the case of a Georgia man suffering from a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis now quarantined in Denver. Just how much of a risk does this virulent strain of TB pose to the general public? We asked Dr. William Schaffner, who heads the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, to help bring some perspective to the issue. He's the subject of this week's 10 Questions.

---

1. First, the simplest question—what is tuberculosis exactly, and why is it so dangerous?

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that affects the lungs most prominently. It is spread by exhaling infectious material that then is inhaled by close contacts. Spread usually requires prolonged, close contact in a confined area, such as a room (or an airplane). Without treatment, active tuberculosis can cause a slowly progressive disease that can result in death.

2. That unidentified TB patient, who is the first federal quarantine since 1963, is carrying a particularly drug-resistant strain of the disease. How could he have contracted it?

Where the patient acquired this multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis infection is not yet known – and is a question of great interest! Most such multi-drug resistant infections occur in the developing world.

3. The man took two long-distance cross-Atlantic flights, and four shorter flights within Europe. What is the risk for the people who sat near him—or on the same plane?

The risk is quite low. First, the patient likely was not very infectious to others. Second, previous similar investigations suggest that, if there is a risk, the persons seated in his immediate vicinity are the ones needing the most attention.

4. Are the people on the shorter flights in as much danger as the people on the longer flights?

The likelihood of transmission of tuberculosis increases with increasing time of exposure. That is why the longer flights are the major focus of the public health investigation.

5. Can this man be punished for ignoring the warnings of health officials not to go on these flights?

Read full post…

Anthony Mason previews tonight's stories, including an update on the tuberculosis patient and look into ground zero-related illnesses.

Read full post…

Russ Mitchell previews tonight's stories, including a Georgia man with a rare form of tuberculosis and the latest on the two wayward whales in Northern California.

Read full post…

Russ Mitchell previews tonight's stories, including the case of a Georgia man with a rare form of tuberculosis and the latest on the two wayward whales in Northern California.

Read full post…