"Most American citizens would want to come immediately back to the United States for treatment, " Gostin says.

NPR: Man Eluded Attempts to Control Deadly TB Strain

Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University Law School thought of those regulations when he heard about this week's case.

NPR: Man Eluded Attempts to Control Deadly TB Strain

Gostin hopes this case will finally break the logjam on updating the nation's quarantine laws, and that other countries will follow suit.

NPR: Man Eluded Attempts to Control Deadly TB Strain

Professor LAWRENCE GOSTIN (Georgetown University Law School): It's a really significant problem.

NPR: TB Traveler Exposes Diagnosis Problems

Gostin says he can sympathize with the TB patient's decision to come back to the United States for treatment, no matter what officials were telling him.

NPR: Man Eluded Attempts to Control Deadly TB Strain

Trials of this nature raise the risk of false security among participants, according to Dr. Lawrence Gostin, a professor of law and public health at Georgetown University.

CNN: Vaccine

And that's why people like Lawrence Gostin are rethinking what public health authorities should do about people with suspected XDR-TB in the weeks before the diagnosis is in.

NPR: TB Traveler Exposes Diagnosis Problems

"We've neglected public health systems financially, from a policy point of view and a legal point of view, for decades, " says Lawrence Gostin , professor of law and public health at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University.

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"My first reaction was, 'Well, here is another case where we have a potentially serious infectious disease that could affect the United States, and we still don't have the legal tools to make sure that we do it properly and constitutionally, " Gostin says.

NPR: Man Eluded Attempts to Control Deadly TB Strain