ATLANTA -- A man who took two trans-Atlantic flights despite having tuberculosis told a newspaper that he went to Europe because he didn't want to call off his wedding in Greece.

The man was quarantined after flying to Europe and back against the advice of health experts, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Julie Gerberding said.

She also said health officials are concentrating on providing the best possible medical care for the man, who is quarantined in Atlanta.

Gerberding says health officials relied on a "covenant of trust" and assumed the man wouldn't expose others to the disease by flying.

Airlines are contacting people who sat near the man on the two flights.

Gerberding said the risk would be greatest for people on long flights. People who got on the same plane after the patient left "are not at risk," she said.

When the situation was announced Tuesday, Gerberding said the risk was greatest for people sitting within two rows of the man.

The patient flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12, arriving on May 13, on Air France flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24, on Czech Air flight 104, from Prague to Montreal. He then drove back to the U.S.

He is believed to have extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, which does not respond to medication typically used to treat TB. Gerberding said Tuesday that though the risk of transmission was very low, there was still some chance.

He is also the first person since 1963 to be under federal quarantine, a step that requires presidential approval.