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Friday, June 01, 2007

UPDATE on Beth Hawkins TB Scare in S.C.

Gaffney, SC (TLS). Good news was delivered today to USC-Aiken student Beth Hawkins and the other students who were on the same flight as 'TB Andy' Speaker from Atlanta to Paris.

Hawkins and her fellow travelers from the University of South Carolina's Aiken campus are TB-free...so far.

They will need to be tested again in eight weeks.

The South Carolina students were on a class trip to Europe when they discovered upon their return home that they had been on one of the same flights that Andrew Speaker of Atlanta took when he flew to Europe for his wedding and honeymoon. Speaker is now being treated for the rare and deadly form of TB in Denver, Colorado.

So far, the news is good for Andy Speaker and all of those who were in close proximity to him. His sputum shows no signs of the disease, and he remains symptom-free. Blood tests, however, show that he has been exposed to the deadly virus at some point in the past. Speaker will remain in Denver to be monitored for two months.

As for Beth Hawkins and her classmates, there is a collective sigh of relief as their initial test was negative.

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