Colorado, N.M., Texas warn bus riders of tuberculosis risk
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published December 3, 2008 at 3:19 p.m.
Updated December 3, 2008 at 3:19 p.m.
People who rode an interstate bus on Aug. 3 or Aug. 9 are at a small risk of having contracted tuberculosis from an infected passenger, health departments from Colorado and two other states warned today.
The bus originated in El Paso and traveled to Greeley, with the infected passenger getting on board in Albuquerque, said the joint announcement from the Colorado, Texas and New Mexico health departments.
It made stops in Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver, among other stops in Texas and New Mexico.
The same passenger boarded the same bus in Greeley on Aug. 9 and rode it back to Albuquerque.
Only passengers who rode the bus on those two dates were at risk for being exposed, said the announcement.
TB is an infectious disease that can be spread through the air when someone with the active form of the disease coughs, sneezes, speaks or sings.
It weakens the lungs and can be deadly if untreated.
All but the most drug-resistant forms of the disease can be treated effectively with antibiotics.
People who think they may have been passengers on that bus on those two specific dates should call their state health departments.
For Colorado, that is the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment at 888-356-0332.
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December 3, 2008
4:40 p.m.
Suggest removal
rage_against_the_stupid writes:
Another wonderful Mexican import; drugs, violence, a dysfunctional school system, an over burdened healthcare system, and now diseases that we once eradicated from this country. Oh, what the heck, their food is great.
December 3, 2008
4:49 p.m.
Suggest removal
blacksho89 writes:
And the name of the bus company is what? Come on, Bill, you know better than to leave that big a hole in your story!
December 3, 2008
5:08 p.m.
Suggest removal
anderson writes:
Speaking of stupid, what does this story have to do with Mexico?
"the infected passenger [got] on board in Albuquerque"
Kind of like that Georgian (U.S.) who took his TB on a flight across the Atlantic.