Andrew Speaker's TB Saga Detailed in Diane Sawyer Interview

Some answers regarding the puzzling events surrounding Andrew Speaker's transatlantic flights are now coming to light. It is these flights that exposed fellow passengers to Level 2 extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Diane Sawyer of ABC's Good Morning America obtained exclusive interviews with Andrew Speaker and his new wife Sarah Cooksey Speaker . An Internet video title "Exclusive: TB Patient Answers Questions" is available on-line at ABC News.

A summary of events in Andrew Speaker's situation follows, with details reported by Diane Sawyer. Andrew Speaker and Sarah Cooksey, who have an eight-year old daughter named Ariel, became engaged in December 2006. In January 2007, Speaker had chest X-rays taken because of an injured rib, Mrs. Speaker said. It was then, a month after their engagement, that Speaker and Ms. Cooksey learned that he has tuberculosis, which was revealed in the X-rays.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks all cases of tuberculosis (TB) in the country and they were duly informed of Speaker's TB. The Fulton County, Georgia, health authorities were also informed. It is the CDC who makes the definitive determination as to the type of strain of TB an individual has.

Speaker stated to Diane Sawyer that he was told that because he was showing no symptoms, such as cough and fever, and his smear tests were negative, he was not infectious He told Sawyer that he was given no cautions about his relations with Sarah Cooksey. She was also not given any cautions regarding her relations with Speaker. Neither were given any cautions regarding their daughter. Speaker continued to work in his law practice and in his charitable activities, and he continued his jogging routine. There were no medical restrictions put on him of any kind, whether in relation to private or public contacts and activities.