This morning Diane Sawyer of ABC News interviewed Andrew Speaker, who stirred up panic, outrage, and controversy after he flew across the Atlantic on a commerical flight, knowing that he was infected with a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis (TB).

Speaker, an attorney from Atlanta, GA, says that CDC doctors told him that he could not infect others before he flew to Europe, but while he was in Europe, the CDC called him and told him to cancel his commercial flight plans and "turn himself in" at a European clinic.

"We said, 'Let's get home and get to Denver,'" Speaker says about his and his wife's decision to leave Europe. "Both of us worried if I turned myself [in] the next day, that's it. It's very real that I could have died there... People told me if I was anywhere but Denver, I'll die.

"I feel awful. I've lived in state of constant fear and anxiety. I'm exhausted, for a week now. And to think that someone else is now feeling that, I wouldn't want anyone to feel that way - it's awful. I just hope they can forgive me and understand that I really believed [I] wasn't putting people at risk because that's what the people told me."

Sawyer and Speaker both wore masks during the interview on Good Morning America, and the interview took place in a room with air filtration and UV lights.

Health officials are scrambling to find passengers who were on the commercial airliners with Speaker so that they can get tested for TB.

The recirculated air in airplane cabins is notorious for carrying germs as well as chemical contaminants. The Plane Clean Air Filter (pictured above) attaches to your personal above-head air nozzle and removes 99.5% of all bacteria, viruses, and allergens from your air stream.

Many people wear masks when traveling on airplanes

TB bacteria is normally carried in "droplets" ranging from 1 - 5 microns, and M. tuberculosis itself ranges from 0.4 – 1.4 microns in size, so I would recommend a mask with a HEPA filter, which filters particles down to 0.3 microns.

Over the past few years, different health agencies have given conflicting reports about the type of mask necessary for preventing the transmission of TB. To be safe, I'd go with true HEPA mask with 99.97% efficiency, although an N95 mask with 95% efficiency gels with CDC recommendations and would certainly be better than nothing.

The way the mask fits is even more important than its filter efficiency, as an ill-fitting mask may lose up to 20% of its efficiency. To be effective, the mask needs to be the correct size and fit snuggly with no gaps between the mask and face.

See Frequent Flyer Special Report: Air Quality in Airplane Cabins for more tips on healthy flying.