Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB) is resistant to the most powerful first-line and second-line drugs used for treating tuberculosis, according to the CDC. Speaker was placed in quarantine at the Grady Memorial Hospital and defended his decision to travel to Greece for his wedding by saying that although doctors asked him to avoid travel; they did not order him stay away.

It also emerged that Speaker's father-in-law Robert C. Cooksey is a CDC TB expert. the agency is now probing his role in the whole affair as it seeks to find answers to questions on how Speaker was able to fly out of the country. Speaker is being administered antibiotics intravenously and is only allowed to leave his room if he wears his specially constructed TB mask.

After a week of hue and cry, doctors from Denver hospital, National Jewish Medical and Research Center say that Speaker has tested negative for the tuberculosis bacteria in two of the three tests, which might lead to him being declared "relatively noncontagious."

Speaker's family has also faced the music in recent days and they merged from a nightmare on Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Father Ted Speaker said his decision to travel was not reckless, but the family was in "hell" because of the outcry that has followed Speaker’s travels.

Dr. Robert Cooksey also defended Speaker's decision to travel by saying that induced sputum tests had returned negative so Speaker could not be considered contagious.

Extensively drug resistant tuberculosis spreads from person to person through air. The mode of transmission is usually through vapor droplets. The CDC says that when an infected person coughs, sneezes, speaks, or sings, he can pass on the germs that cause tuberculosis. People who breathe in this germ-filled air are at a high risk of getting infected.

That is why the CDC has asked local health authorities to notify all the concerned travels and test them for tuberculosis.

The treatment usually consists of four to five drugs and sometimes patients require extensive surgery as well.  "Successful outcomes depend greatly on the extent of the drug resistance, the severity of the disease, and whether the patient’s immune system is weakened,” according to the CDC.

According to the CDC, Drug-resistant TB (MDR or XDR) is more common in people who:

    * Do not take their TB medicine regularly
    * Do not take all of their TB medicines as told by their doctor or nurse
    * Develop active TB disease again, after having taken TB medicine in the past
    * Come from areas of the world where drug-resistant TB is common
    * Have spent time with someone known to have drug-resistant TB disease

In Speaker’s case, it is not clear how he contacted the disease, but it may not be that serious if his third test also returns negative.

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