A woman infected with a dangerous form of tuberculosis was intercepted on Monday at the airport as she was about to leave the country, a Department of Health official said on Monday.
Chou Jih-haw (周志浩), deputy director of the department’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC), said treatment in quarantine at a hospital was being arranged for the woman.
“The CDC was informed in early January that the woman had multidrug-resistant tuberculosis [MDR-TB] and that she hadn’t completed her treatment,” Chou said.
As her name was on the list of people barred from leaving the country, she was intercepted as she was about to board a plane for Southeast Asia.
Chou said the woman was infected with tuberculosis a decade ago and had since been cured after treatment. However, she tested positive for MDR-TB in January.
“As being infected with TB does not guarantee immunity from the disease for the rest of your life, it is not yet clear whether she suffered a relapse or was infected again,” Chou said.
Since July 1, 2007, the DOH has forbidden MDR-TB patients from taking international flights and those with infectious TB from taking international flights of eight hours or longer. Violators are subject to fines of up to NT$150,000.
Since an incident two years ago when a couple with MDR-TB left the country, health officials have begun providing lists of those who have infectious TB to airports.
After the couple traveled to China via Hong Kong in July 2007 in defiance of the travel ban, the health department had to seek China’s assistance in tracking them down, which they eventually did in Jiangsu Province.
Officials escorted the couple back to Taiwan via direct ferry links between Xiamen and Kinmen.
The two were sent to Taichung Hospital for compulsory treatment later the same month.
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