DENVER -- An Atlanta man who may have exposed dozens of airline passengers to a rare and dangerous form of tuberculosis has arrived in Denver for treatment.

The patient, Andrew Speaker, is an Atlanta-area personal injury and family law attorney.

He was escorted to Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center by federal marshals.

Speaker had been in isolation at an Atlanta hospital, suffering from a rare form of drug-resistant TB.

The 31-year-old man, was transported to Denver via air ambulance jet. He then boarded a regular ambulance for the 14-mile trip to National Jewish. He arrived there at 7:40 a.m. Thursday.

Speaker, wearing a mask, stepped off the ambulance without assistance and walked into the hospital, shielded from view by an employee holding up a sheet.

"He's tired, but in good spirits," said Dr. Gwen Huitt, the physician who will lead the team providing Speaker's medical care.

The hospital, which specializes in respiratory disorders, said earlier it was prepared for his arrival and confirmed that he checked in at 7:50 a.m , escorted by federal marshals and his new wife.

Huitt said they'll evalute the patient then begin treatment with two antibiotics while awaiting test restults to determine which exotic second or third line drugs may be effective against his TB.

Click here to read the statement.

When asked how long Speaker's treatment could take, Huitt responded "best case scenario two months, worst case scenario six months."

Speaker will have to stay in an isolation room with negative air flow. Contaminated air will be vented out through special ceiling vents lined with ultraviolet lights to kill remaining germs.

When asked what if he gets cabin fever and wants to leave, Huitt responded, "We have ways to keep that from happening."

"We're not expecting to have armed guards at the door, but we will have security around. It's more to make sure you guys (the media) don't get in rather than to make sure he doesn't get out," said hospital spokesman William Allstetter.

Speaker's father-in-law works as a microbiologist at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory that studies TB and other bacterial infections.

Bob Cooksey said he gave his son-in-law "fatherly advice" when he learned he contracted the disease.

"I'm hoping and praying that he's getting the proper treatment, that my daughter is holding up mentally and physically," Cooksey told The Associated Press. "Had I known that my daughter was in any risk, I would have not allowed her to travel."

In a prepared statement on Thursday, Cooksey defended accusations that Speaker may have contracted the rare form of TB from him.

"As part of my job, I am regularly tested for TB. I do not have TB nor have I ever had TB," Cooksey said. "My son-in-law's TB did not originate from myself or the CDC labs, which operate under the highest levels of biosecurity."

Cooksey said he was not involved with Speaker's decision to travel.

"As a parent, frequent traveler, and biologist, I well appreciate the potential harm that can be caused by diseases caused by TB," he said. "I would never knowingly put my daughter or anyone else at risk for some disease."

Cooksey asked media personnel to respect his and his family's privacy and declined any future media requests.

According to a biography posted on a Web site connected with Speaker's law firm, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in finance, and then attended University of Georgia's law school.

His father, Ted Speaker, unsuccessfully ran for a Fulton County Superior Court judgeship in 2004, the same year his son was admitted into the Georgia Bar.

Andrew Speaker recently moved from an upscale condominium complex in anticipation of his wedding, former neighbors said. He also wrote in an application to become a board member of his condo association that he was going to Vietnam for five weeks as part of the Rotary Club to act as an ambassador.

His wife, Sarah, is a third-year law student at Atlanta's Emory University.

"He's a great guy -- gregarious," said Pam Hood, a former neighbor. "He's a wonderful guy. Just a very, very pleasant man."

In a phone interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from an Atlanta hospital earlier this week, he explained that he knew he had TB when he flew from Atlanta to Europe in mid-May for his wedding and honeymoon, but that he didn't find out until he was already there that it was an extensively drug-resistant strain considered especially dangerous.

Despite warnings from federal health officials not to board another long flight, he flew home for treatment fearing he wouldn't survive if he didn't reach the U.S.

Health officials in North America and Europe are now trying to track down about 80 passengers who sat near him on the two trans-Atlantic flights, and they want passenger lists from four shorter flights he took while in Europe. Patients on the shorter flights are not expected to be as much at risk, health officials said.

Among those being tested are more than two dozen University of South Carolina-Aiken students, school spokeswoman Jennifer Lake said Thursday. Two were apparently sitting near him, possibly in the same row, she said.

One of those students, Laney Wiggins, said she is awaiting her skin test results, expected Friday.

"I'm very nervous," Wiggins told The (Columbia) State newspaper. "It's kind of sad that this is overshadowing the wonderful time we had in Europe."

The infected man had flown to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385, also listed as Delta Air Lines codeshare Flight 8517, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He and his bride also took four shorter flights while in Europe -- Paris to Athens on May 14; Athens to Thira Island May 16; Mykonos Island to Athens May 21; and Athens to Rome May 21 -- but CDC officials said there was less risk of infection during the shorter hops compared to the trans-Atlantic flights, which each lasted eight hours or more.

It was while they were in Rome that he learned further U.S. tests had determined his TB was the rare, extensively drug-resistant form, far more dangerous than he knew. Officials told him turn himself over to Italian health officials and not to fly on any commercial airlines.

Instead, on May 24, he flew from Rome to Prague on Czech Air Flight 0727, then flew to Montreal aboard Czech Air Flight 0104 and drove into the U.S., according to CDC officials.

Officials are trying to contact people who sat within five rows of him on the two longest flights for testing.

Other passengers are not considered at high risk of infection because tests indicated the amount of TB bacteria in the man was low, said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration and quarantine.

The infected man told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he wasn't coughing and that doctors initially did not order him not to fly and only suggested he put off his long-planned wedding. "We headed off to Greece thinking everything's fine," he told the newspaper.

Dr. Charles Daley, head of the infectious disease division at National Jewish Hospital, said the hospital has treated two other patients with what appears to be the same strain of tuberculosis since 2000, although that strain had not been identified and named at the time. He said the patients had improved enough to be released.

"With drug-resistant tuberculosis, it's quite a challenge to treat this," Daley told CNN Thursday. "The cure rate that's been reported in other places is very low. It's about 30 percent for XDR-TB."

"This is a different patient, though. We're told that this is very early in the course, and most of the time when we get patients that it's very extensive and very far advanced. So I think we're more optimistic," he said. "We're aiming for cure. We know it's an uphill battle, but we hope to get there."

"What we're discovering is worldwide there are more of these patients every year," said Daley. "What makes him different is not that he has an extremely resistant case of tuberculosis, but it's really the other things that have surrounded the case in terms of the travel."

Daley explained that this form of drug-resistant TB in the U.S. is very rare. Since 1993, the United States has had 49 cases.

"But globally this has been recognized more commonly. If you look at South Korea -- a recent report said 15 percent of their multi-drug resistant cases had this form of resistant TB," Daley said. "Tuberculosis is still the No. 1 killer of adults from infectious disease in the world. And I think that is still not appreciated. And the number of drug-resistant cases worldwide is greater than it has ever been. So, even though we hear of the number of cases going down in the U.S., we have to recognize that is not what is happening globally. And as we saw with this gentleman traveling through the globe, we are at risk for being infected."

In an exclusive interview, ABC News' Diane Sawyer talks to Andrew Speaker, the patient diagnosed with tuberculosis who is currently in isolation, about his situation and what lies ahead. Sawyer also talks to Speaker's wife. Watch the full interview Friday on "Good Morning America," 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.