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The world traveling Atlanta
lawyer at the center of the tuberculosis controversy, with a dangerous strain
of TB, was allowed back into the U.S. by a border inspector who disregarded a computer warning to
stop him and don protective gear, officials said Thursday. The inspector has
been removed from border duty. The unidentified inspector explained that
he was no doctor but that the infected man seemed perfectly healthy and that he
thought the warning was merely "discretionary," officials briefed on
the case told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because
the matter is still under investigation.
The patient was identified
as Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old personal injury lawyer who returned last week
from his wedding and honeymoon trip through Italy, the Greek isles and other
spots in Europe. His new father-in-law,
Robert C. Cooksey, is a CDC microbiologist whose specialty is TB and other
bacteria. Cooksey would not comment on whether he reported his son-in-law to
federal health authorities. Nor did the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention explain how the case came to their attention. However, Cooksey said
that neither he nor his CDC laboratory was the source of his son-in-law's TB. Speaker
is now under quarantine at a hospital in Denver. He is the first infected
person to be quarantined by the U.S. government since 1963.
Published in
News Archive
