BOCA RATON, FLORIDA -- Despite billions of dollars spent on national security in airports, a man infected with XDR (extensively drug resistant) tuberculosis was allowed to travel unhindered into the United States, underscoring how drug-resistant strains of the disease could be used in a bioterrorist attack against the U.S.

The attention this story has been receiving over the past few days is no surprise, but it's just a glimpse of the potential nightmare ahead.

"I am convinced that the absence of a viable program against tuberculosis (TB) being used as a weapon compromises our state of national security," says Dr. Kanti Daya, one of the world's foremost experts on this potentially lethal form of tuberculosis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials lost track of an Atlanta resident with a rare, potentially deadly type of tuberculosis while overseas, only to have him re-enter the U.S. unchallenged. This raises questions on the government's ability to stop a would-be terrorist, in spite of advance intelligence, and highlights deficiencies in the nation's system to keep the direst of diseases from crossing borders.

The actual danger presented by the current panic is minimal when compared to what a coordinated, intentional attack by bioterrorists infected with the disease landing in population centers across the country would bring.

"The disease is communicated via airborne droplets. It has no color, odor or heat content that would alert you to avoid breathing. For example, an effective infection with anthrax requires between 8,000-10,000 particles. TB infection only requires an inoculum of 2-3 particles," explains Dr. Kanti.
An Interpol official warned of a bioterror threat, based on evidence from captured terrorists. And the CIA has now listed TB as a potential bioterror weapon.

Deadly new outbreaks have recently been reported in England and South Africa. A recent AP article cited one man in Phoenix who has been locked up because he is infected with a "virtually untreatable" strain of tuberculosis, a strain that the WHO has been warning the public about.

"At least one-third of the world-two billion people-is infected with TB. Here in the U.S. we barely hear about these diseases ... we're [just] starting to feel their impact," says Dr. Kanti.

Tuberculosis has been dubbed "Captain of the Men of Death," an apt sobriquet as the disease kills two million people each year-almost four people per minute.