TB Quarantine Raises Legal Questions

[maddezmom]

ATLANTA (AP) -- The case of a jet-setting tuberculosis patient might soon shift from the hospital wards to the courts. The patient, Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta personal injury attorney, could sue the federal government for being quarantined on the basis of federal regulations that some scholars see as unconstitutional.

Or Speaker could be sued by fellow airline passengers, especially if any caught the disease from him - which some legal scholars say is much more likely.

"He may be personally liable if someone contracts TB" from being near him on his recent flights to and from Europe, said Peter Jacobson, a University of Michigan professor of public health law. "I can see a jury coming down very hard on someone like that who willfully ignored advice not to travel."

Speaker flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon after being advised by health officials not to make the trip because he had TB. Then, while he was in Rome, U.S. health officials told him to stay put because further tests showed he had an even more dangerous, drug-resistant type of TB than previously thought.

more:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TUBERCULOSIS_INFECTION_LAW?SITE=CAPAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[wakeme2008]

1. I wonder if his WIFE knew nt

[PADemD]

2. Why wasn't his passport pulled?

[maddezmom]

3. that's the question of the hour

from this report he broke no laws when he left and health officials had to get the quarantine order from HLS at which point his passport would have set off alarms when he entered the country.

~snip~
Authorities said Speaker did not break any laws because at no point during his international travel was he under a court order to stay put.

From Rome, Speaker and his wife flew to Prague and then to Montreal. They drove to the border crossing at Champlain, N.Y. At the checkpoint, both their passports set off warnings when scanned into a computer. The alerts instructed the guard to isolate and detain Speaker, and immediately call health authorities.

But the inspector, who has since been removed from border duties, apparently concluded that the travelers looked healthy. They spent no more than two minutes at the checkpoint before crossing into the U.S., said Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke.

more;http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tb1jun01,0,702778.story?coll=la-home-center