Fugitive TB patient asks for forgiveness

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) A tuberculosis patient who turned fugitive in order to continue with wedding and honeymoon plans despite warnings not to travel has apologized to the fellow airline passengers he may have endangered, ABC television reported today.

Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer, says he has tape recordings to prove his assertions that he was only advised not to travel, not clearly forbidden to do so.

Speaker touched off an international health alert, a rare federal isolation order and a congressional investigation when he and his new bride fled across Europe, sneaked onto a flight to Canada and then drove across the border to the United States to avoid health officials.

Speaker is now being held in near-isolation at a specialist hospital in Denver for treatment for his infection, known as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis or XDR TB.

Health experts are tracking down 100 or so people who spent eight hours or longer close to Speaker on two trans-Atlantic flights to encourage them to be tested for possible TB exposure.

Officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say a federal isolation order -- the first issued in 44 years -- will likely be transferred to local Colorado authorities.

The US Homeland Security Department said it was investigating how Speaker slipped through borders despite orders to detain him.

ABC said Speaker defended his actions and apologizes for them in an interview to be aired later today.

''He says he wants everyone to know how he made the decision, why he felt so strongly that it was not endangering anybody else and (is) also asking forgiveness of those onboard who are now having to be tested,'' interviewer Diane Sawyer said.

NOT ESPECIALLY INFECTIOUS CDC officials and an infectious disease expert at National Jewish Medical Center, where Speaker is being treated, said he was not especially infectious. The Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli were difficult to find in his sputum, he is not coughing and he appears to be in good health.

In an ironic twist, a veteran TB researcher at the CDC, Robert Cooksey, confirmed that he is Speaker's new father-in-law. Cooksey denied being the source of the TB that infected Speaker and Speaker's doctor said it is not known where the personal injury lawyer, an avid traveler, became infected.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said it is also not clear how Speaker evaded border controls. The CDC had notified Homeland Security about Speaker and asked that he be detained if he turned up.

Knocke said all officers at all ports of entry into the United States had Speaker's name. ''The information was in our system, so that the second a passport would have been swiped it would have popped (up),'' Knocke said in a telephone interview.

He said an internal investigation was under way.

Rep Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, said he would hold a hearing.

''There are a number of vulnerabilities that this situation has brought to our attention that we will look for in the committee,'' Thompson told CNN. ''Clearly, it means we have to, from the top to bottom, look at our system.'' Reuters SBC DB1144