Airline passenger's rash sets off a smallpox scare

[tycoonjack]

Airline passenger's rash sets off a smallpox scare; Man's remark about hives causes alarm on S.F.-Memphis flight

Health authorities converged on a Northwest Airlines flight from San Francisco to Memphis after a passenger remarked that a rash on his neck might be a result of smallpox, officials said Wednesday.

The 40-year-old Memphis man, whose name was not released, was checked by paramedics, who determined that he did not have smallpox, a deadly, contagious virus that causes a high fever and a rash that scars its survivors.