WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - U.S. federal health officials have placed under quarantine a man who may have exposed fellow passengers to a particularly nasty strain of tuberculosis on two transatlantic flights, authorities said on Tuesday.

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said authorities are seeking to notify passengers who traveled aboard Air France 385 from Atlanta to Paris on May 13 and back to the United States on Czech Air Flight 0104 on May 24.

She said people at CDC do not recall a similar action since 1963.

"This is an unusual TB organism, one that's very, very difficult to treat. And we want to make sure that we have done everything we possibly can to identify people who could be at risk," Gerberding said.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that usually attacks the lungs.

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