What is the risk of transmitting TB on a plane? Marc Siegel gives the answer, and has some comments on the media coverage:
The simple answer I give them is “extremely low.” Big HEPA filters screen out more than 99 percent of viral and bacterial particles, including tuberculosis. The risk of Speaker infecting another passenger when he reportedly wasn’t coughing, had no fever, and was receiving some treatment is probably less than 1 percent. The chance of an actual case of serious TB resulting from this exposure is even less than that, as there has not yet been a single case of active tuberculosis found to be the result of exposure on a plane.
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