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 A female patient with an extremely hard-to-treat form of tuberculosis is being treated at the National Institutes of Health outside Washington, D.C., and federal and state officials are now tracking down hundreds of people who may have been in contact with her. 
 
 The woman traveled to at least three states before she sought treatment from a U.S. doctor. While TB is not easily caught by casual contact, extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB is so dangerous that health officials will have to make a concerted effort to warn anyone who may be at risk. 
 
 “The patient was transferred to the NIH via special air and ground ambulances,” the NIH said in a statement. 
 
 “The patient was transferred to the NIH via special air and ground ambulances." 
 
 “The patient is staying in an isolation room in the NIH Clinical Center specifically designed for handling patients with respiratory infections, including XDR-TB. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, is providing care and treatment for the patient in connection with an existing NIH clinical protocol for treating TB, including XDR forms. NIAID has treated other XDR-TB patients in the past under this protocol," the NIH said. 
 
 These special isolation rooms usually control air flow to prevent germs from escaping into the rest of the hospital or outside. 
 
 The patient, who isn’t being identified in any way, may face months or even years of treatment. Ordinary TB is hard to treat and requires, at a minimum, weeks of antibiotics. XDR-TB resists the effects of almost all the known TB drugs. Sometimes patients have to have pockets of infection surgically removed. 
 
 Only about a third to half of cases can even be cured. 
 
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 It’s not clear why the patient traveled so much before seeking treatment, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. 
 
 “The patient traveled in April from India to the United States through Chicago O’Hare airport,” the CDC said in a statement provided to NBC News. 
 
 “The patient also spent time in Missouri and Tennessee. Seven weeks after arriving in the United States, the patient sought treatment for and was diagnosed with active TB.” 
 
 She was isolated in a suburban Chicago hospital before she was sent to NIH. 
 
 CDC and NIH are testing the patient to see what drugs may help her. 
 
 “Besides concerns about community contacts, the patient flew from India to the United States. CDC will obtain the passenger manifest for that flight from the airline and will begin a contact investigation. Although the risk of getting a contagious disease on an airplane is low, public health officers sometimes need to find and alert travelers who may have been exposed to an ill passenger,” CDC said. 
 
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 CDC takes these cases very seriously. In 2007 Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta lawyer with multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, was arrested and forcibly isolated under federal order after he defied CDC advisories and flew out of the country to get married. 
 
 XDR-TB is very rare in the U.S. CDC says it got reports of 63 cases between 1993 and 2011. 
 
 "TB bacteria are put into the air when a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, shouts, or sings," CDC says. "These bacteria can float in the air for several hours, depending on the environment. Persons who breathe in the air containing these TB bacteria can become infected." 
 
 “The patient traveled in April from India to the United States through Chicago O’Hare airport." 
 
 People with lowered immunity, especially HIV patients, are most at risk. 
 
 “All travelers should avoid high risk settings where there are no infection control measures in place. Documented places where transmission has occurred include crowded hospitals, prisons, homeless shelters, and other settings where susceptible persons come in contact with persons with TB disease,” CDC advises. 
 
 The average cost of treating multidrug-resistant TB is $134,000, compared to $17,000 for a normal case. That can shoot up to $430,000 for an extensively resistant case. It’s not clear who will pay for this patient’s treatment. 
 
 Nine million people are infected with TB every year, including 9,000 people in the U.S. ||||| A woman with a rare, hard-to-treat form of tuberculosis visited family in McHenry County after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in April, and also traveled in Missouri and Tennessee, according to health officials who are trying to track down people who came in close contact with her. 
 
 The woman sought treatment at an undisclosed hospital in the Chicago area, where she was admitted to an isolation unit, and then was transferred to a National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Md. Her condition was reported as stable. 
 
 The woman has an extremely drug-resistant form of the disease called XDR TB, which is impervious to most TB drugs. Three to four cases are reported each year in the United States, on average. 
 
 TB is not as easily spread as diseases like the flu or measles. But it is a dangerous illness, especially for people with weakened immune systems, and health officials are taking the situation seriously, Skinner said. 
 
 Health officials in Illinois are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find people with whom the woman may have had prolonged direct contact, in close quarters, according to CDC spokesman Tom Skinner. 
 
 Debra Quackenbush, a spokeswoman for the McHenry County Health Department, said some of the people who came into close contact with the woman have been interviewed and are being monitored. She did not believe the general public was at risk. 
 
 Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria spread from person to person through the air. It usually affects the lungs and can lead to symptoms such as chest pain and coughing up blood. 
 
 TB has been declining in the United States. But globally, each year it sickens about 9 million people and is a cause of 1.5 million deaths. 
 
 Associated Press contributed. ||||| Story highlights Woman traveled from India to the U.S. and later tested for drug-resistant TB 
 
 Contact tracing is underway for people who had prolonged close contact with patient 
 
 (CNN) Health authorities are working to identify people who may have been exposed to a patient with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. 
 
 The patient traveled in April from India to the United States, through Chicago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. Seven weeks after arriving, the patient -- who also spent time in Missouri and Tennessee -- sought treatment and was diagnosed with active tuberculosis. 
 
 She has an extensively drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, which is a relatively rare form of the disease that is resistant to at least four of the core anti-TB drugs, according to the World Health Organization 
 
 Contact tracing is underway, and the CDC is seeking people who may have had prolonged close contact with the woman, including those who sat in the same row or near the woman on the flight. 
 
 "The likelihood that this person transmitted the illness is low, but this is a very serious illness so we can't take any chances, and need to get the close contacts in for testing," said Tom Skinner, a spokesperson at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "TB is a very serious illness and the XDRTB version is difficult to treat." 
 
 Read More ||||| Three with tuberculosis at local school WTOP's Michelle Basch reports. Download Health officials: 2 TB cases are connected Kathy Stewart, WTOP Download 
 
 WASHINGTON - The Fairfax County Health Department is launching an investigation after three people were diagnosed with active tuberculosis at Robert Lee High School. 
 
 Approximately 430 students and staff who may have been exposed to the disease are being asked to make an appointment for a skin test for tuberculosis, says Dr. Barbara Andrino, the health department's tuberculosis physician. 
 
 Two letters went out to the school community -- the first sent June 17 alerting them to the diagnosed individuals and the second to the potentially exposed group, said Dr. Gloria Addo Ayensu, director of the Fairfax County Health Department, during a press conference Thursday. 
 
 Investigators tracked the people close to the patients who spent more than 24 hours with them or were with them in "confined spaces" to alert them to their potential exposure. 
 
 "The first individual was diagnosed in December 2012 and a contact investigation was initiated at that time and completed. Two additional students from the same school were diagnosed with TB earlier this month," Addo Ayensu said. 
 
 She later backed off that statement, unwilling to confirm the patients were students or staff to protect their identities. 
 
 The health department says all three individuals were diagnosed with active TB. Patients with the active form of the infection are sick, and they are contagious and could spread the disease. 
 
 Clinics are being set up at Lee High school beginning Friday. Additional testing clinics will be set up next Monday through Friday. Those tested will be asked to return to see if they test positive for the bacteria. 
 
 Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection spread through the air that typically attacks the lungs but can affect other parts of the body like the kidneys and spine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
 
 TB is spread from one person to another when an infected person sneezes, coughs or speaks. It can only be spread when the patient is exhibiting "active" symptoms. The disease can be treated with a course of medications usually requiring six to nine months of treatment. 
 
 Addo Ayensu would not say if a patient's travel was the source of the infection, but said most of the cases they see are in foreign-born patients. The Fairfax County Health Department sees, on average, 90 cases of active tuberculosis a year. 
 
 The symptoms of TB include: 
 
 coughing that lasts several weeks or coughing up blood 
 
 pain in the chest 
 
 weight loss 
 
 weakness or fatigue 
 
 no appetite 
 
 fever or chills or night sweats 
 
 However not all patients experience symptoms and have what medical officials call latent TB. Although these patients cannot spread the bacteria, they are at risk for becoming ill and developing active TB. These patients are typically given medications to kill the bacteria and prevent the spread of the disease. 
 
 According to the health department, about one-third of the world's population has latent TB. 
 
 "Fairfax County is a diverse community so it is expected that some people in the community have latent TB infection," the health department said in its written statement. 
 
 WTOP's Megan Cloherty and Michelle Basch contributed to this report. Follow @WTOP on Twitter. 
 
 © 2013 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. ||||| The United States has reported its first case of a new virus found in the Middle East, in a traveler from the region, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. 
 
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 The patient, a healthcare worker who traveled from Saudi Arabia to Indiana, is being kept isolated in an Indiana hospital after being diagnosed with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, the CDC says. 
 
 "In 2014 these new diseases are just a plane ride away," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general and director of CDC’s National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases. “We have been preparing since 2012 for this eventuality.” 
 
 The World Health Organization has expressed alarm about the increase in reports of MERS. WHO reports more than 250 confirmed cases and 93 deaths since the virus was identified in 2012. But Saudi Arabia alone has reported 371 cases, with 107 deaths. 
 
 Experts say it was only a matter of time before it came to the United States. 
 
 “In this interconnected world we live in, we expected MERS to make its way to the United States." 
 
 Schuchat says this first imported case poses only a low risk for the general public. "We don't have a sense right now that this is very easy to spread," Schuchat told reporters on a conference call. 
 
 The virus has not been known to spread on airplanes or buses. Most cases have been among people caring for sick patients or in very close contact with them. 
 
 The CDC says it is tracking down anyone who might have been in contact with the patient, including airplane seat mates, out of an abundance of caution. They're also checking health care workers who cared for him. 
 
 “On April 24, the patient traveled by plane from Saudi Arabia to London, then from London to Chicago,” the CDC said. “The patient then took a bus from Chicago to Indiana. On the 27th, the patient began to experience signs of illness, including shortness of breath and coughing. The patient went to an emergency department on April 28th. Because of the patient’s symptoms and travel history, Indiana public health officials had him tested for MERS.” 
 
 Indiana state health officials said the patient was at Community Hospital in Munster. 
 
 "In light of federal privacy regulations, we can only disclose that the patient is in good condition," hospital officials said in a statement. "We are maintaining appropriate isolation protocols for the protection of health care staff." 
 
 Exposed family members and health care workers will be monitored daily throughout the 14-day incubation period for MERS, officials said. The patient wasn't out in the local community, so any public exposure was "minimal," they added. 
 
 The virus has infected people in Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirate, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Britain, Tunisia, Malaysia and the Philippines. There’s no specific treatment, no cure and no vaccine for MERS. 
 
 Last week, WHO predicted a springtime surge in MERS cases. 
 
 MERS first showed up in 2012, when it killed an elderly Saudi man. It worries health experts because it’s related to severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which swept around the world in 2003, infecting around 8,000 people and killing close to 800 before it was stopped. Both conditions are caused by coronaviruses, members of a family of viruses that usually cause common cold symptoms and that infect a wide range of mammals. 
 
 The most recent research traces it to camels, although most cases seem to be spread from one person to another. 
 
 "It is not always possible to identify patients with MERS early because some have mild or unusual symptoms." 
 
 The virus can survive on surfaces, and might spread when people touch something contaminated. SARS appears to have spread that way, and many other viruses do, too. 
 
 CDC and WHO say the virus has spread many times in hospitals, dialysis centers and other healthcare facilities, so they are cautioning health workers to take special precautions. 
 
 “Infection prevention and control measures are critical to prevent the possible spread of MERS in health care facilities,” WHO says. 
 
 “Health care workers should be educated, trained and refreshed with skills on infection prevention and control. It is not always possible to identify patients with MERS early because some have mild or unusual symptoms. For this reason, it is important that health-care workers apply standard precautions consistently with all patients — regardless of their diagnosis — in all work practices all the time.” 
 
 While MERS kills about a third of the patients who show symptoms, some people have been found later to have been infected but they never got sick. Most of those who have been severely ill have been elderly or had other illnesses such as diabetes or kidney disease.
– CDC officials say a woman with an extremely rare form of tuberculosis came to the US from India and traveled to three different states before being diagnosed with an active case of the disease. Now she's isolated at a National Institutes for Health clinic in Maryland, and authorities are trying to track down "hundreds of people" who may have come into contact with her, NBC News reports. If it were just a simple case of TB, there wouldn't be such a brouhaha—but the unnamed patient has extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR TB, which doesn't respond to some of the most powerful anti-TB drugs, per the World Health Organization. Although the disease is rare—the CDC says only 63 cases of it were noted between 1993 and 2011—TB bacteria can enter the air via coughs or sneezes and remain there for several hours, the agency notes. After spending time in India—the country with the largest number of TB cases in 2013, according to WHO—the woman flew back to Chicago in April, then traveled to Missouri and Tennessee over the next seven weeks, notes NBC. CNN points out as many as 8 weeks can pass between exposure and a positive TB test. A spokeswoman for the McHenry County Health Department in Illinois tells the Chicago Tribune it's keeping an eye on some people the woman was in close contact with and that the general public is likely not at risk. An NIH statement says the patient is being treated in a room "specifically designed for handling patients with respiratory infections, including XDR-TB," per NBC; the CDC says she's in stable condition. The CDC reports only 30% to 50% of XDR TB cases can be cured, and treatment can take years, with doctors even performing surgery to remove infected areas.