Speaker was in Europe for his wedding and honeymoon at the time his XDR TB was diagnosed, although he was aware before the trip that he had a form of drug-resistant TB. (CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta on other passengers' fears, frustrations)

Health officials said they advised him not to travel, but they had no authority to prevent him from doing so.

After making it clear that he was set on traveling despite the warnings, the man asked during a meeting with county health officials whether it would help if he wore a mask, Fulton County's Dr. Eric Benning told CNN.

Since the county was not able legally to stop him from traveling, the officials recommended he at least wear a mask, Benning said. Speaker left for Europe a few days later.

Speaker, who was not identified by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, told the newspaper he was aware he was placed on a no-fly list in the United States after his diagnosis with XDR TB, which is why he decided not to fly into a U.S. airport.

The CDC had alerted Customs and Border Protection authorities about the man on May 22, noting that they anticipated he might board his scheduled June 5 flight into Atlanta, the official said. Instead, Speaker took a Czech Air flight from Prague to Montreal, along with 199 other passengers and crew members, and then drove into the United States.

I have mixed feelings on this one. First I agree that he NEVER should have gotten on the first flight to Europe once the doctors advised him against flying. I know he had this long planned wedding but so goes life. His wedding plans do not give him the right to endanger others.

Now that being said, after he was already in Europe and they tracked him down in Rome and told him they had identified exactly which strain of TB he had and told him not to return to the US and to notify Italian health authorities I would have probably done exactly the same thing and did whatever I had to do to get back to the US. As a US citizen on US soil he has rights under our constitution. As a US citizen on foreign soil with that type of medical condition he would have been completely at the will of the Italian government and medical personnel. And believe what you may about our government, I personally don't think our government would have done anything to try and help him or return him to the US.

Being trapped in a foreign country with no rights is not something I would wish on anyone.