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U.S. Helicopter Goes Down in Afghanistan; President Bush Meets With Iraqi President

Aired May 31, 2007 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

MARCIANO: And I'm Rob Marciano, in for Don Lemon. He's on assignment.

Well, a stunning twist in an already riveting story -- an Atlanta man somehow develops a severe strain of tuberculosis.

PHILLIPS: Now it's revealed that Andrew Speaker's father-in-law is a microbiologist at the CDC, and he does research on T.B. What's next?

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Medical alert nationwide, worldwide, and developments in the story by the hour. Now this is what we know about the man infected with a nasty form of tuberculosis, exposed dozens, maybe hundreds of people, to the disease. He's been identified.

He's 31-year-old Andrew Speaker of Atlanta. And here's the other development this hour. Speaker's father-in-law works at the CDC. This is what we know. Bob Cooksey actually does research on tuberculosis. When he found out that his son-in-law had T.B. -- or his son-in-law, rather -- he gave some fatherly advice.

He also advised his daughter, who had just married Speaker, not to travel.

We're working to try and talk to him, of course, and get more information on that background.

Meanwhile, today, Andrew Speaker arrived at a specialty hospital in Denver.

That's where our Ed Lavandera is to bring us up to date -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Well, Andrew Speaker arrived here shortly before 8:00 this morning, Mountain time. He walked in, we're told, and said he was feeling fine. And that connection to the CDC, we have asked several hospital officials here about that. They didn't know anything about that at this point. However, there is a press conference that will start here in about a half-hour with the doctors and the physicians that are treating Andrew Speaker.

We suspect that that issue will come up, as well -- of course, all of this part of the history and the baseline assessment that physicians here are undergoing, or -- and will be continue -- will be continuing throughout the day just trying to get that initial assessment of Andrew Speaker's condition.

As he said, he was feeling fine. But doctors are testing his heart, kidney, liver, all sorts of exams. In fact, he's being kept in an isolated room in -- in this hospital that you see behind me, where he will be for -- for weeks, if not months, as they continue to try to figure out some sort of treatment that will cure this form of tuberculosis -- tuberculosis that Andrew Speaker has.

The room that he's in is an isolated room that has a special air- filtration system. And, then, it uses ultraviolet light to kill the infection that might be floating around in the room.

Any of the doctors and physicians that come into contact with him have to wear a specialized mask. And he will only be allowed out of that room once today. And that is on his way to take a C.T. scan and part of a -- a lung X-ray as well -- so, a long list and battery of tests that Andrew Speaker will be going -- going through today, as doctors here begin the process of trying to figure out how to best treat him -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ed, and you know the latest development, with finding out that his father-in-law works at the CDC, actually is a researcher on tuberculosis.

I know that you have had to do a lot of live shots in your working this story, but is anybody talking about that? Do we know if there's any type of connection to his father-in-law, possibly how he got infected, anything that you have been able to get from this new piece of news?

LAVANDERA: Since we have found out about that piece of news, we have only been able to ask the CEO of the hospital here.

He said he was unaware of any -- of that kind of connection. Of course, one of the -- the physicians that have been treating him, we haven't been able to speak with just yet. There will be, as I mentioned, a press conference here in about a half-hour, where those doctors will be out, addressing some of the questions.

So, we anticipate that that will be brought up then. However, one of the things that doctors are doing with Andrew Speaker today is a long list of questions and interviews, trying to figure out where he might have contracted this disease.

That kind of questioning and that kind of information might come up. It's not something that we know for sure has come up at this point. But that might be the kind of thing that doctors speak with Andrew Speaker about at some point when they -- when they question him today.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know you will be able to ask those questions.

Ed Lavandera, live from Denver, appreciate it.

MARCIANO: Elizabeth Cohen back from Grady Hospital right here in Atlanta, where Mr. Speaker was staying.

What can you tell us about the place?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I wasn't just at Grady, where he was staying. I was actually in his room.

I was in the very room where Andrew Speaker got treatment at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. It's the room that he left -- you are seeing it right here, right now -- about 11 hours ago. So, this is the room where he stayed.

That's the chief of epidemiologist there, showing me the room. It looks like just any other hospital room. What you can't see -- see right there? I am pointing to a vent. Air in this room gets sucked into that vent. It creates a vacuum, room 12-B50 -- you see it right there -- so that any tuberculosis bacteria that are hanging out in that room, they get sucked into that vent.

There's a HEPA filter, which filters out the tuberculosis bacteria. And then it's pumped out the roof and into the atmosphere, so that none of that air is going back into the hospital. But this is the room where he stays. It looks pretty much like any other isolation room in any hospital in any country where they treat tuberculosis patients.

MARCIANO: So, there was no danger of you being in the room?

COHEN: Oh, No. No. He was gone, was out. The room was empty. You don't even have to wear a mask if there's not a patient. Now, if a patient had been in there, we would all be wearing masks that were -- that were fitted to our faces. And -- but, without a patient, there's no risk.

MARCIANO: Fascinating stuff. A room just like that is where he's staying in Denver, I assume.

What kind of treatment should we expect for him to get over there?

COHEN: Well, what -- what they are saying in Denver, the doctors there, is that, first, they're going to treat him with some very powerful antibiotics.

Now, this man has -- his disease has proved to be resistant to at least five different antibiotics. So, what they do now is, they use ones they hardly ever use. And the reason why is that they can cause kidney and liver damage. So, these are really used in very unusual circumstances.

Now, the doctors at National Jewish in Denver have said that they really anticipate that they're going to have to do surgery on him at some point.

And what that means, Rob, is that they go in, and they actually remove a section of the lung that's infected. And they don't do this at just any hospital. This is very unusual surgery. They have never done it...

MARCIANO: Wow.

COHEN: ... at this hospital on someone with extensively-drug- resistant tuberculosis. So, for them, it will be a first, and probably one of the first, if not the first, in the country.

MARCIANO: It doesn't sound good.

You know, we have talked so much about the ethics of this, what happened to other patients. But, in the end, things don't look good for Andrew Speaker.

COHEN: Well, it depends how you look at it.

I mean, certainly, this disease has a very high mortality rate. In fact, less than 30 percent of the people who get this disease can be treated for it.

But he is really in the best situation for someone who has extensively-drug-resistant tuberculosis. The reason is, is that it appears to have been caught at a very early stage.

The CDC has been very clear that, when they looked at the amount of bacteria in his spit, that it was very, very, very low levels. They don't consider him to be extremely infectious.

So, he's there. He's getting the Cadillac of care, it appears. And, so, now that they have caught it early, that can make a difference. When you start treating tuberculosis is extremely important. It makes all the difference.

MARCIANO: All right. Well, that is a bit of optimism. And we certainly hope he pulls through.

You have got an exclusive report tonight on "PAULA ZAHN." Want to talk about that. Tune in tonight. We're going to go into -- or Elizabeth has -- she has gone into Andrew Speaker's isolation room. And we will bring you that exclusive report tonight on "PAULA ZAHN NOW." That's actually at 8:00 Eastern. Tune in then.

PHILLIPS: Now, Andrew Speaker flew from Atlanta to Europe. He took four shorter flights there, before flying back to North America. Health officials are still trying to track down some of his fellow passengers. And those who have been found are being examined.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BETH HAWKINS, SHARED FLIGHT WITH TUBERCULOSIS PATIENT: We have all either have already gotten tested or made arrangements to go get tested some time today, because our main concern was, if any of us picked it up, we could have potentially given it to each other, because we lived with each other for two weeks after that, and we are sharing food and sharing drinks. So, we're just worried about passing it along.

MARK HILL, SHARED FLIGHT WITH TUBERCULOSIS PATIENT: I think that he, you know, owes an apology to -- to close to 400 people that possibly he -- he could have infected.

And, you know, I -- I think he was -- he was certainly torn, but there are different stories about what he was told and what he says he was told. So, at the end of the day, I think that he owes quite a few people an apology.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, doctors are most concerned about passengers on the transatlantic flights. They say that passengers on the shorter flights in Europe are not believed to be as much at risk.

MARCIANO: A U.S. Chinook is down. NATO forces racing to the rescue come under attack. It's been a deadly 24 hours in southern Afghanistan.

With the latest now, our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. Army CH-47 helicopter went down in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, where NATO and U.S. troops have been battling Taliban fighters for weeks in the rugged terrain.

Initial reports indicate the transport helicopter, similar to this one, was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade. The entire five-man crew was killed, as well as two other military passengers.

The helicopter had just dropped off other U.S. Army troops on the ground. According to a NATO statement, another unit responded to the scene of the crash, but was ambushed by enemy fighters. An airstrike was then called in to stop the attackers.

Chinook helicopters are the Army's workhorse, used daily to ferry equipment and troops. Helicopters flying in Afghanistan are particularly vulnerable when they travel through steep mountain passes or when they operate low to the ground in open areas.

(on camera): The insurgent tactic of attacking rescuers to a crash site has already been seen in Iraq. Now it's appearing in Afghanistan, and U.S. military officials say they are very concerned.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And, of course, this story just continues to get more and more interesting.

And we're talking about Andrew Speaker, the 31-year-old lawyer here from Georgia, the man that has tuberculosis, the man that flew on those transatlantic flights, and now has created quite a stir across the United States and across Europe, as well, about if he could possibly have infected somebody with this dangerous, sometimes fatal, strain of tuberculosis, one that he carries and one he's being treated for in a Denver hospital.

We had told you the latest twist to this. And that is, his father-in-law is a research microbiologist in the Division of Tuberculosis Elimination at the CDC right here in Atlanta, Georgia.

Bob Cooksey is his father-in-law. And we have been trying to understand if there was any way that there was a connection between how his new son-in-law got T.B. and the fact that Mr. Cooksey works at the CDC, and works specifically on T.B., and is a -- research in that particular area.

We just got a statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is from Bob Cooksey. He wrote this statement. And this is what he says, as he explains his position as someone who works on T.B. at the CDC.

He says: "As part of my job, I am regularly tested for T.B. I do not have T.B., or have I ever had T.B. My son-in-law's T.B. did not originate from myself or the CDC's labs, which operate under the highest levels of biosecurity."

Mr. Cooksey goes on to say: "I wasn't involved in any decisions my son-in-law made regarding his travel, nor did I ever act as a CDC official or in an official CDC capacity with respect to any of the events of the past weeks."

He says: "As a parent, a frequent traveler, and biologist, I well appreciate the potential harm that can be caused by diseases like T.B. I would never knowingly put my daughter, friends, or anyone else at risk from such a disease."

Finally, Mr. Cooksey says in his statement: "I would ask the media to respect my privacy and that of my family. And I will be respectfully declining all media requests. My thoughts and focus over the next few months will be with my family. And we are hopeful that Andrew will have a fast and successful recovery" -- that coming from Bob Cooksey, the father-in-law of Andrew Speaker, the man infected with tuberculosis.

We are waiting for a live news conference from that Denver hospital where Andrew Speaker is being treated. We will bring that to you live as soon as it happens.

MARCIANO: News and information as it happens here in the CNN NEWSROOM brought to you -- we're covering all aspects of this story, including -- I mean, what's more important, doctor-patient confidentiality or public safety? That's just one of the many hard questions raised by this T.B. case. We will ask a medical ethicist for answers next.

PHILLIPS: Twenty-eight students killed in a single school year, but, unless you live in Chicago, you probably haven't heard a word about it --

David Mattingly with the disturbing report -- straight ahead from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: It's quarter after 3:00 right now, Eastern time. And here are three of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, the tuberculosis patient who touched off an international health scare has been transferred to a Denver hospital. Thirty-one- year-old Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta lawyer, flew between the United States and Europe, raising concerns he could have infected fellow passengers.

Also, President Bush is meeting this afternoon with Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, at this -- the White House. Talabani is on a three-week U.S. visit.

And the governor of New Hampshire today signed legislation allowing gay couples to join in civil unions starting next year.

PHILLIPS: Well, as we reported earlier, the tuberculosis patient who sparked an international health scare has been identified as 31- year-old Atlanta lawyer Andrew Speaker. Speaker was admitted to a Denver hospital today, after earlier treatment in Atlanta.

Authorities say that he flew to Europe and back, despite being warned that his health problems might endanger fellow passengers. The case has raised ethical questions involving a patient's right to privacy vs. the public's right to be protected.

Dr. William Sexson is chair of the ethics committee at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital, where Speaker was first treated.

And I have to tell you, this was the main topic of conversation. Everybody wanted to know, well, did he know? And, if he did, why did he fly? So, now, of course, we have learned so much about this case.

What's your take? Did he make the right decision, ethically?

DR. WILLIAM SEXSON, MEDICAL ETHICIST: Well, first -- first of all, ethics, generally, is not about what's right and what's wrong. It's competing views of -- of what's the -- the right thing to do in a particular situation.

So, I think that -- that we're not dealing with right and wrong, first of all. The second thing is, I -- I really have to commend the news media. Virtually everything that I have seen to this point has really been very respectful of his -- of his rights, of his individual rights.

But there was an interesting case back -- back in the mid-'70s, the Tarasoff case, a case out of -- a legal case that made the -- the California Supreme Court.

And, basically the judge, in deciding the Tarasoff case, said that individual confidentiality stops where public peril begins. And I think that one of the things that -- that, in this case, and with a number of other things, that -- where the -- the public may be at risk, we really have to balance that right of individuality, the individual confidence...

PHILLIPS: I'm not familiar with that case. What was that -- what -- what did that patient have?

SEXSON: It was a case where a psychologist was -- was doing -- was doing therapy on a student. The student said he was going to kill somebody. The -- the student went out and actually killed somebody about two or three weeks later.

PHILLIPS: Interesting.

SEXSON: And the -- the psychologist was sued for not revealing to -- to -- to the person that was killed that they that they -- that they were at risk.

PHILLIPS: So, let's translate -- translate that case, then, into what we saw here with Andrew Speaker.

It -- it seemed that doctors knew what he had. They told him not to travel. And, of course, there's a lot of misunderstanding with, OK, when did he leave? Could they not track him down? They tried to get a legal order, didn't get it there in time. I mean, there's all these twists and turns.

SEXSON: Right.

PHILLIPS: But, bottom line, they knew he was a threat. So, should there have been any type of -- of action quicker in this case, or do you think everything went properly?

SEXSON: That -- that's a great question.

One of the things that I think is the most interesting thing about how all of us relate, and about ethical issues specifically, is that -- that there's always a difference in the nuance of communication.

And one of the things that generates a tremendous number of our -- our -- of our ethical cases at Emory and at Grady have to do with failures of communication.

Did this -- did this person know? Obviously, he did. And I would -- the -- that -- that seems obvious from the -- the news stories. Whether or not he was aware of the urgency that the doctors were trying to get across is something, I think, that -- that we may not know.

But I -- obviously, you -- you have a difference in communication in the way he perceived it.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's take a listen to what some passengers had to say about what they think about his behavior. And I will get you to respond.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON VIK, SHARED FLIGHT WITH TUBERCULOSIS PATIENT: I think if -- if he knew he had tuberculosis, regardless of whether it was XDR, I think anything contagious -- you know, if he wore a mask, that's one thing. But, you know, for him to ignore health authorities is -- is very irresponsible.

I think it's selfish of him to do that and put other people at risk. And, you know, now you're looking at 30 college students, no matter -- I mean, no telling how many kids were on this flight. And I think it's just ridiculous that somebody could, you know, put that many people at risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And, I have to tell you, we have received a lot of e- mails asking the same question.

So, as a doctor, as someone that knows this case, as someone that deals with ethical issues and ethics in medicine, how do you feel about this, ethically?

SEXSON: I think that -- that I'm concerned about the -- the public well-being in this specific case, and that -- that, certainly, I think that, from what I have read, and what I have seen on CNN, that, prior to this case, that the -- it appears that the -- that the patient was aware that he had T.B.

I'm -- I am sure that his response -- like I said, there are two different viewpoints on this -- his response would be, the doctors, beforehand, weren't specific. They weren't strong enough in saying that.

So, again, you have this tension about, did he know? Was there enough information? How did he respond? And I -- the -- I think that this is a real difficult situation, and one that frequently comes up not just with infectious disease, but in many of the realms of -- of ethics and contention that -- that we may have just in society.

PHILLIPS: Well, I -- you bring up a good point, because I don't know how you do what you do. It's got to be really tough.

I'm going to call you for advice when I have ethical questions, Doctor.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Thank you very much.

SEXSON: That would be great.

PHILLIPS: Thank you very much, Bill Sexson. Appreciate it.

We're also expecting a live news conference out of Denver, Colorado, where Andrew Speaker is, and where he's being treated now. We will take that live as soon as it happens. We should hear from his doctors on how the treatment has begun.

MARCIANO: Twenty-eight students killed in a single school year, but, unless you live in Chicago, you probably haven't heard a word about it.

Our David Mattingly with a disturbing report, that's ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The president of the United States meeting with the president of Iraq -- why is Talabani here in the United States? He's said to be getting some medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic. We had heard initially it had to do with dietary issues.

We haven't actually been able to confirm exactly why he's here and exactly what type of treatment he is getting at the Mayo Clinic -- but, with all that said, the president meeting with the president of Iraq, obviously, talking about health issues, as well as the condition overseas in Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I admire the leadership you have shown. And I welcome you.

We had a -- we had a good conversation today about a variety of subjects. I told the president that I am fully committed to helping the Iraqi government achieve important objectives -- we -- we call them benchmarks -- political law, necessary to show the Iraqi citizens that there is a unified government, willing to work on the interests of all people.

The president fully understands the need for the Iraqi government to meet certain benchmarks. And he is dedicated to achieving those benchmarks. We're working very hard, for example, on getting an oil law with an oil-revenue-sharing code that -- that will help unite the country, working very hard on de-Baathification law, and on reform, as well as provincial elections. We -- we talked about a lot of issues.

And I want to thank you very much for your vision, Mr. President, and your willingness to take the hard steps necessary to get the job done. I told the president of a decision I have made. I have asked one of my top aides, Meghan O'Sullivan, to return to Baghdad. Meghan has been an integral part of our team here at the White House. She has been in Iraq before. She's going back to serve with Ambassador Crocker, to help the Iraqis and to help the embassy help the Iraqis meet the benchmarks that the Congress and the president expect to get passed.

And I want to thank Meghan for her dedicated service to a free Iraq.

Mr. President, it is important that you succeed. Failure in Iraq would endanger the American citizens, because failure in Iraq would embolden the enemies of a free Iraq.

David Petraeus said, public enemy number one in Iraq is al Qaeda. Al Qaeda happens to be public enemy number one in America, too. And that should say loud and clear to citizens who still remember the lessons of September the 11th that it's in our interests to help the Iraqis defeat al Qaeda.

We must not let al Qaeda have a safe haven in Iraq. We must not retreat in the face of the unspeakable violence that they perpetuate on your citizens. We must help you prevail. And -- and, if -- if all Iraqis show the same courage you showed, we will prevail. And there's a lot of courageous Iraqis there.

I'm confident we can succeed, Mr. President. And I want to thank you for coming here to the White House to join me.

JALAL TALABANI, IRAQI PRESIDENT: I am pleased and honored to meet our great friend, whom we consider the hero of liberating Iraq, President George Bush, who was always with the Iraqi people.

Also, I must tell you that I am committed, as the president of Iraq, to benchmarks and to do our best to achieve some progress forward for national reconciliation, for passing the law, oil law, de- Baathification, and investment, and other laws which are now under discussion. And I think we are due to finish all of it and send it to parliament to be achieved.

At the same time, we are committed to do our best to train our army and armed forces to replace, gradually, the American forces in taking responsibility of the security of our country.

Of course, we are very grateful to the American people. And I present my condolences to the sacrifice which this glorious people, America, has always presented for liberating peoples all over the history and for Iraqi people and Afghan people and others.

We are always pitting our desire to strengthen the reach of Iraq and the unity of the national government and to have a collective leadership in Iraq for dealing with all problems. And I've briefed the -- his excellency, Mr. President about what we have done and what we have achieved for this purpose. I am glad to have the support of President Bush and the Congress. I'm grateful to Congress. I told President Bush that I'm grateful for the Congress for the last decision and for the next (ph) decision which the resolution was taken by Congress. The resolution of liberating Iraq at the time of President Bill Clinton.

So we are determined to success. Of course, we have problems. I don't say that everything is OK. Everything is good. We have -- we have problems. We have serious problems with terrorism.

The main enemy of the Iraqi people is al Qaeda and terrorists cooperating with them. But there are groups who are now raising arms (ph) against us. Now we are negotiating with them to give them back to the political process of the Iraqi people. And we have good achievements. Also, we hope that this will lead to more big steps forward to national reconciliation in Iraq.

We are also determined to improve our political and economic life in Iraq. We achieved -- unfortunately media only concentrating on negative sides of Iraq. They are not concentrating on big achievements in Iraq, economic achievements, raising the salaries of the millions of Iraqis, improving the social life, and that all universities, schools, hospitals are working well in Iraq.

Besides the problems which we have, we don't deny it. We are trying to overcome these difficulties. But we have some achievements thanks to the United States of America and our great friend, President Bush. We're achieving some good, important successes.

Besides some failure in the security, we have also successes in bringing democracy for the first time to Iraq. All kinds of democratic rights are now available for the Iraqi people.

We had free elections. We now have parliament elected by people. We have authorities, presidency, prime minister chosen by the people. This is happening for the first time in the history of the Iraqi people.

Also, we have some kind of success in rebuilding our country. Not all parts of Iraq are terrible areas. We have in the north of Iraq, Kurdistan, (INAUDIBLE) Iraqis believing in peace, security and prosperity. And also in the south, we have about nine provinces now secured.

And gradually, days ago, the American forces delivered the responsibility of security to the authorities in the Iraqi Kurdistan. So we are going forward with difficulties.

I don't deny difficulties. I don't deny (INAUDIBLE). I don't deny that.

Still, we are suffering from some problems, but we are determined to benchmarks and to our -- determined to go forward, and to achieve Mr. President's mission. Now we are due to end the oil (INAUDIBLE) which will have revenue sharing for all Iraqis, due to review the de- baathification. We have our new draft for this. We have an agreement, another proper draft for investment by encouraging investment from outside to Iraq. And we are going to renew the local elections (INAUDIBLE) near future for this.

And again, I am grateful to the American people, to the president of the American people, for what they have done for my people, for Iraq. We are now living in a much better situation than we had in the past, and we are facing a common enemy, which is still -- al Qaeda is the enemy not only of Iraq and of America, but all people over the word.

Look to the Arab countries. Everywhere al Qaeda -- in Albania, in Nigeria, in Morocco, in Saudi Arabia, in Egypt. Al Qaeda is starting to work against all peoples of the Middle East. So we are fighting this enemy. And as President Bush said, there must be no place for al Qaeda in Iraq or in other places, because if they can have such a kind of basis, they will threaten Europe and the United States of America.

Again, Mr. President, thank you very much for your time and for the words you say.

BUSH: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: As you saw there, the president of the United States, side by side with the president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani.

Of course, all things Iraq was the topic of discussion. However, Talabani, here in the United States, receiving some type of medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic. We haven't been able to find out exactly what that is. Apparently, it has something to do with diet issues.

But in the meantime, he has been meeting with the president, talking about the war in Iraq and looking forward to a much brighter future, one that I think everybody hopes will happen in that country.

MARCIANO: Kyra, want to get you back out to our top story. It's been the tuberculosis scare. Denver, Colorado, is where our attention has been shifted to. That is where the patient, Andrew Speaker, has been transferred via CDC private airplane and is now in that hospital undergoing evaluation, and will be undergoing treatment.

And as has been told earlier today by doctors at the hospital, likely for quite some time. Mr. Speaker probably won't be leaving his room or even the hospital for several weeks.

News on this side of the continent in Atlanta from the CDC recently. We've been reporting that Robert Cooksey is the father-in- law to Mr. Speaker. And he works at the CDC as a microbiologist in the tuberculosis department.

But the statement from Mr. Cooksey says that he works there. He's frequently tested by TB. Mr. Speaker did not get this TB strain from him or from the CDC.

And I toss it out to you. What do you think this presser is going to bring us?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I'm going to turn it over now to our president and CEO, Michael Salem, M.D. And that is S-A-L-E-M. Michael is standard spelling. And he's going to introduce Dr. Gwen Huitt.

DR. MICHAEL SALEM, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL JEWISH MEDICAL AND RESEARCH CENTER: Welcome. Welcome to National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

Let me begin by introducing you to Dr. Gwen Huitt, who is the director of adult infectious disease day unit, a longtime physician at National Jewish Medical and Research Center, and the person who is directly responsible today for the care of the patient who arrived here at National Jewish.

Dr. Hewitt.

DR. GWEN HUITT, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN: Thank you. Thank you all for arriving.

I am an infectious disease physician. I've been working here at National Jewish for about 15 years and have quite a bit of experience taking care of patients that we have served at our facility over these years with multi drug-resistant tuberculosis.

The patient in question arrived safely this morning via -- after via air transport. He is doing extremely well, is in very good spirits.

And I have already met with him and done my initial history and physical examine with him. And we have discussed the plan of treatment initially, and then things that might be taking place down the road over the next days and perhaps weeks.

That's about where we stand right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'd like to take a few questions.

QUESTION: Is he infectious?

HUITT: He is -- he is smear-negative from a sputum analysis standpoint. So, by conventional methods that we traditionally use in the public health arena in general terms, he would be considered of low infectivity at this point in time.

He is not coughing. He is healthy. He does not have a fever. So he is of low communicability at this point in time by our records that we have received. We will be reevaluating him during the first few days.

Yes?

QUESTION: How does that translate to the (OFF-MIKE)?

HUITT: Well, I'm going to leave that in the hands right now of the CDC. That's certainly what the CDC is qualified to undertake, as far as an investigation. And they are on top of this, and they will be releasing information as that effort is undertaken.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

HUITT: Again, I'd really like to refer back to the CDC so that they can give you up-to-date information regarding their investigation, because I'm not involved in that in any -- any way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

QUESTION: What are the first steps of treatment?

HUITT: Well, the first step in treatment is taking a good history and doing a physical exam. And we have done that this morning. Then as the day progresses we will obtain radiographs, a chest radiograph, likely a CAT scan, which is a much more detailed radiograph, so that we can better assess his lung tissue from a radiographic standpoint.

We do some standard initial blood work, and that has already been obtained. And thus far, that's -- and he's eaten. He was hungry.

QUESTION: We were told this morning you were going to be talking to him about his medical history and probably his background. What have you been able to learn and what are your suspicions about where he might have contracted this?

HUITT: You know, at this point in time, we really don't have an idea. He's had some fairly extensive travel history over the past six years. So at this point in time, we actually don't have an idea where he might have contracted this. He has traveled many places.

So as part of a history, we always take a travel history, and that has been obtained. But unfortunately, I'm no closer today knowing where he might have acquired this than I was two days ago by speaking with his doctors in Georgia.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

HUITT: No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that he -- I take a travel -- an extensive travel history on any patient. So I've gone back six years, and he's had extensive travel throughout the world during those six-year -- that six-year time period.

QUESTION: What is incubation time for TB?

HUITT: The incubation time period can vary extensively. So a patient can inhale the bacteria, and in one degree it can remain -- the body can actually kill it, as it is supposed to do, if your immune system is functioning at 100 percent. In other cases, the body will take care of it for a period of time, and then in -- for some undue reason, maybe it's a stressful situation, maybe it's some other illness, the germ which has laid dormant in some place in the body can reactivate and cause active disease. Or in a case somebody may acquire a large dose of the bacteria from someone else who's highly infectious and they may come down with active disease themselves within a few weeks or months. So there's a huge spectrum of how this disease can present.

QUESTION: Can you tell us more about the plan of treatment? There's been some discussion or talk about the possibility of surgical removal of a mass in the lungs follow by antibiotic treatment. Is that on the table? Or what can you tell us?

HUITT: Well, I don't know yet because we don't have the radiographs. So the radiographs are a very important aspect of data collection at this point in time.

So we need to radiographically assess him. And that hasn't been done yet. That will be done later today.

We have -- the CDC has performed some initial susceptibility testing on the isolate in that they have tested a battery of medications already. We are in the process of doing some augmentation work, testing some additional antibiotics in our laboratory that other laboratories don't have the ability to do, that only National Jewish can do.

In the meantime, we will be coming up with a drug regiment that will likely include probably about five separate antibiotics while we are waiting for the newest testing results to develop.

QUESTION: Testing results to see how resistant or less resistant it is?

HUITT: We'll be testing some new medications that were not tested at the CDC that might be available for our use down the road.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Meaning never used?

HUITT: No, no, no. Old -- old medications. Medications that -- this isn't a new discovery, as it were.

These are medications that most labs don't have the ability to test a germ against, that National Jewish's laboratory is specially designed to test for these old drugs in a new way. Let's put it that way.

QUESTION: Has he been treated for TB before, or do you think that he could have gotten this drug-resistant from someone?

HUITT: The only treatment that he received was the initial treatment course that they started him on down in Georgia. So one would have to surmise, if this susceptibility -- if these susceptibility results are correct -- and I am not doubting that they are correct -- that he acquired this drug-resistant strain from some other person.

QUESTION: In discussing his history, did the possibility that his father-in-law, Dr. Cooksey (OFF-MIKE)?

HUITT: I have nothing in the history that that would bear that out.

QUESTION: Doctor, (INAUDIBLE) that this is a unique circumstance because in two or three cases that you've had of XDR since roughly 200, 2001, generally these cases are if someone who is HIV positive, advanced disease that they also have, or that this is from some past therapy they may have had. So if you would in your terms describe what makes this circumstance unlike any other.

HUITT: Well, it appears from the history that he most likely acquired this particular strain of tuberculosis from another person somewhere, somehow.

QUESTION: But unlike those people who had advanced forms of other diseases and other health issues, he, as best I can understand from Dr. Daley (ph), appears to be totally healthy and is unlike any other circumstances you're familiar with.

HUITT: Absolutely. And we must sort of remember, go back, that tuberculosis infects one-third of the world's population.

This is a very common infection when you think of global terms. And I'm not talking about XDR-TB. I'm talking about more drug- susceptible strains, let's say.

So this -- this germ is very common in the world prevalence. And as Dr. Daley (ph) alluded to yesterday, one can grow their own drug- resistant strains.

If you are unable to take the medicines as they are prescribed, or if you have some reason that your body can't absorb medications the way they should. Or you can get it the old-fashioned way by coming into prolonged contact with somebody else who is infectious with this organism.

QUESTION: Given that, what are the chances -- what is the likelihood that this isn't all that uncommon, it's only uncommon that someone who gets one of the few XDR cases in the world, but is asymptomatic, happens to have a relative in the CDC business, and, therefore, this is spotted. Yet there may be a whole lot of other people with nonsymptomatic XDR out there that we don't know about?

HUITT: There are probably many people in the world that have at least initially at some point in time, at least in the early phases of their illness, may be asymptomatic. You aren't necessarily symptomatic. In fact, it's unusual.

The minute you inhale the tuberculosis germ you're not symptomatic with fever, chills and weight loss. It takes some degree of time to manifest the symptoms. So there are and certainly have been reported for years, cases of XDR-TB in different areas of the world, whether a patient is HIV infected or not HIV infected. They've been in both populations. QUESTION: But I assume that the recorded cases are the ones that are asymptomatic? Are there a whole lot of other XDR cases that are asymptomatic?

HUITT: People that -- yes, that's a possibility.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

HUITT: I'm very optimistic. He's a young, healthy gentleman, was jogging every day. And is quite fit and has no other -- no other health issues. So I am very optimistic that we will be able to help him tremendously.

QUESTION: Can you talk about the timetable?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

HUITT: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

HUITT: He -- you've heard of serendipity. He had an injury to a rib and went in to have it checked out. And as they were searching for an injured rib with an x-ray, they saw an abnormality on the chest x-ray, and said that this is an abnormality that needs to be followed up on. So he was referred for further testing.

QUESTION: The initial stage of this testing, in the first couple of days here, what will his daily regime be? He's going to be here for weeks or months. What will his day-to-day life be like?

HUITT: Pretty boring. Basically, we administer the medications at our facility. Any patient receives what is termed a directly observed therapy, so that a nurse observes the patients taking the medication and swallowing it.

That's standard care in our facility and has been ever since we've been taking care of tuberculosis patients. And then he'll be getting physical therapy. He'll be -- we'll be monitoring blood levels to ensure that we don't under-dose him or overdose him on the antibiotics that he will be -- being administered to him. And we'll be evaluating how he's responding to the antibiotics, and then as the next probably days to a week or so go on, we'll be likely evaluating whether he should be a candidate for surgery.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to take a few calls from online.

OK.

OPERATOR: Our first question comes from Joanne Slobener (ph).

Please go ahead with your question.

QUESTION: What type of TB bacteria does he have? And can you confirm it's not (INAUDIBLE)?

HUITT: I can't confirm that right now.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

HUITT: The CDC is still working on some typing analysis. And I am not -- I don't have those results yet. There are studies that are still being undertaken.

QUESTION: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on a second. Let's give these guys a few shots.

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Maggie Fox (ph).

Please go ahead with your question.

QUESTION: Hi. Can you give us some details of what antibiotics you'll be considering giving him, what are the circumstances under which you'd perform surgery? And do you have any estimate of how much his treatment is going to cost?

HUITT: The antibiotics that we will be choosing from are what are called the second and third-line drugs. They include drugs by the name of moxyphlocsisin (ph), psychlosirin (ph), PAS, efiodimide (ph), amycasin (ph), and some others called clothasamine (ph), lenazalyd (ph). I think that's about all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

HUITT: The next question, one question was surgery. As I said, we will be looking at the CT scan and the radiographs to see how involved the lung is. Are there areas or an area of the lung that this is really localized to predominantly so that we can approach this surgically by taking out the infected portion of the lung? And that will be coming along in the next few days.

The cost for -- generally speaking, we throw out a cost. It depends whether surgery is necessary or not. It's, generally speaking, in the realm of $250,000 to about $350,000.

QUESTION: For what period of time is that, the whole treatment?

HUITT: The whole treatment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our next question (INAUDIBLE).

OPERATOR: Our next question comes from Larry Altman (ph).

Please go ahead with your question.

QUESTION: Could you (INAUDIBLE) diagnostic workup back from January until May? There seems to be a long period here, even taking (INAUDIBLE) the length of time it takes to grow the organism and do that. It seems from prior descriptions from CDC to be a four-month situation. Can you comment on this and tell us about the health department's involvement?

HUITT: Well, you know, I'd rather sort of talk about and focus on what my involvement has been starting today. And I had no...

PHILLIPS: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. More from the Denver hospital and the condition of the patient with TB.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: We've been monitoring a press -- or news conference out of Denver, Colorado, National Jewish Medical Center, where they say that Andrew Speaker is in good spirits, feeling well at the moment. He has no fever. And they say that the disease, the TB that he has at this stage of the game, is of low communicability, meaning it's difficult to spread.

Ed Lavandera on the ground there in Denver.

Ed, I guess that spells it out as far as what doctors are doing to protect themselves. You have a mask there?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. There were a couple of things.

As you heard the doctor talking about, all the different types of testing that will be going on, that have been going, will continue to go on throughout the day. Obviously they have to be in very close contact.

This is the kind of mask that Andrew Speaker will be wearing. Just your standard surgical mask. Whenever he leaves the room to go do the CT scan and the lung test later this afternoon, all he needs to do is wear this. And that is just to be able to keep the national breathing out of that immediate space.

This mask, a little more heavy duty, if you will, it's got a little form here where people can -- the medical staff can bend it around their face. And it kind of looks like this. This is a little bit thicker. And they say it's more heavy duty and there's enough to protect the medical staff and the physicians that will be coming into contact with Andrew Speaker as they continue to do the tests here later on today.

MARCIANO: OK, Ed. If you could, continue to monitor that press conference.

Ed Lavandera for us live in Denver, Colorado.

Let's get it over to Kyra and Elizabeth for more breakdown.

PHILLIPS: Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

We found out he went in for an injured rib. Next thing you knew, doctors said something else is there.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that actually explained a question we've had, which is how did they catch it so early? This explained it.

It was kind of a fluke. It appears that Andrew Speaker had an injured rib. He went in to get an x-ray. And they saw something abnormal in his chest. And they said, you've got to get checked out.

And this is what it turns out to be, this Extensively Drug- Resistant Tuberculosis.

PHILLIPS: He's got to -- doctors waiting on a radiograph and a CT scan. That will dictate whether they take a chunk of his lung out via surgery, or just the right antibiotic mix.

COHEN: That's right. And she named the antibiotics that they want to try first. She named six of them.

Dr. Huitt named things like moxyphlocsisin (ph), psychlosirin (ph). That's not what your doctor is probably going to give you for your average sinus infection. These are second and third-line antibiotics that can do harm to the liver and kidneys. They only give it in cases like this.

Now, the surgery, if they do it, it will be the first one that National Jewish has done on someone with Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis. From the information we've received, it will be the first one in the country.

PHILLIPS: And we also found out his father-in-law works for the CDC, works on research for TB. But he came forward and said, he did not get it from me, I don't have it, it didn't come from our labs. His father-in-law, Bob Cooksey.

But we did learn from this press conference in Denver he's a world traveler. Andrew Speaker has been all over the world in the past six years. He could have gotten it somewhere there.

COHEN: Right. Not just -- we all know about his travel recently. We've seen it all in maps and going all over to Europe. But apparently lots of travel in the past six years all over the world.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll continue to follow it.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

More developing news on the investigation, on this story.

We're going to take it now to Wolf Blitzer and "THE SITUATION ROOM".

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