The U.S. health authorities in conjunction with the World Health Organization and national health authorities in Europe begin a worldwide search for passengers and crew members on two trans-Atlantic flights who may have come into contact with a man infected with a potentially deadly form of tuberculosis, media reported on May 30.

The U.S. government Centers for Disease Control (DCD) in Atlanta, Georgia, are seeking around 80 passengers and a further 27 crew members on-board two flights taken by the infected man, said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.

Two flights involved Air France AF385 from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 and Czech Air 104 from Prague to Montreal on May 24.

Other passengers on the flights are not considered at high risk of infection because tests indicated the amount of tuberculosis bacteria in them was "quite low," Cetron said.

The man, who is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963, was infected with a rare case of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR TB. He told a newspaper he flew from Atlanta to Greece for a wedding and then traveled to Italy for a honeymoon. Later he flew back to North America for treatment.

He also took several other flights in Greece and Italy, but the health agency stressed that those on these shorter flights did not face a significant risk.

The man is being held in isolation and under armed guard at a U.S. hospital in the southern state of Georgia.

Health officials said the man had been advised not to fly and knew he could expose others when he boarded the jets. But the man said doctors did not order him not to fly.