WASHINGTON, June 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. man with a dangerous form of tuberculosis who triggered an international health scare last month will have surgery to treat his infection, hospital officials said on Thursday.

Andrew Speaker, 31, will have a tennis-ball-sized piece of his lung removed to get rid of diseased tissue and most of the remaining TB bacteria, said officials at National Jewish Medical Center in Denver, where Speaker is isolated.

"Andrew Speaker is an excellent candidate for surgery," said Dr. Charles Daley, head of the hospital's infectious disease division. "The infected area of his lung is relatively small and well contained. He is also young and otherwise healthy."

The hospital said other patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis who have had similar procedures became culture-negative and were able to go home a month after surgery. Culture-negative means no bacteria can be found in a patient's sputum, even after growing it in the lab.

The Atlanta lawyer will have the surgery next month at a University of Colorado hospital and continue to take antibiotics.

He has extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which resists virtually all of the usual antibiotics used to treat the disease.

Patients must take a cocktail of strong antibiotics for months or even years to cure their infections. Hospital officials have estimated that Speaker's treatment will cost $250,000 or more.

Speaker made headlines in May when he evaded authorities trying to stop him. He flew to his wedding in Greece, honeymooned in Rome and went through the Czech Republic and Canada before re-entering the United States.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered Speaker isolated, the first time such a federal isolation order had been issued in 44 years.

Although Speaker was never considered highly infectious, his type of TB is so dangerous that officials do not want patients to travel because the risks are so great to others.

The CDC and health authorities in Europe tracked down more than 100 passengers and crew on two flights who sat near Speaker to urge them to get tested for TB.

Speaker's voyage also prompted investigations by Congress into how the CDC and border authorities handled the matter.

The World Health Organization said the CDC was slow in notifying other health departments about Speaker's condition, and the newlywed couple crossed the border from Canada despite an alert that should have stopped them.

The CDC is also investigating the role of Speaker's father-in-law, a veteran TB researcher at the agency. The CDC has denied Speaker's infection originated there.

AlertNet news is provided by