A man with a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis may have spread the disease to passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, federal health officials said Tuesday.

CDC officials on Tuesday released information about the passenger, and called for people on the same flights to get checked for the infection.

The infected patient traveled on two trans-Atlantic air flights and in doing so, may have exposed passengers and crew to the infection.

The patient flew from Atlanta to Paris on Mat 12, arriving on May 13, on Air France Flight 385. He returned to the United States on May 24, on Czech Air Flight 410, from Prague to Montreal.

The man then drove into the United States. He is hospitalized, in respiratory isolation, according to the World Health Organization.

He was potentially infectious at the time of the flights to and from Europe, and so CDC officials are recommending medical evaluation of cabin crew members on those flights as well as passengers sitting in the same rows as the man or two roses in front or behind, according to the WHO.

Tuberculosis is a disease caused by germs that are spread from person to person through the air. TB usually affects the lungs, and can lead to symptoms such as chest pain and coughing up blood. Globally, it kills nearly 2 million people each year.

Thanks to antibiotics and other measures, the TB rate in the United States has been falling for years. Last year, it hit an all-time low _a total of 13,767 cases, or about 4.6 cases per 100,000 Americans.

But health officials worry about "multidrug-resistant" TB, which can withstand the mainline antibiotics isoniazid and rifampin. About 1.2 percent of U.S. TB cases fall into that category, according to CDC statistics.

A more rare, even-worse category of "extensively drug-resistant" TB - or XDR-TB - does not respond to at least three of six classes of second-line drugs. Last year, there were two U.S. cases of that infection.

Medical treatment of just one case of XDR-TB can cost $500,000 or more, CDC officials say.