A 30-year-old woman from Sunnyvale, Calif., returned from a trip to India with a drug-resistant type of tuberculosis, prompting health officials to take extended measures in order to identify people she has had contact with.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the woman, whose identity has not been revealed by authorities, is currently in an isolation unit at Stanford Hospital, with a particularly drug-resistant form of TB.

During a stay in India, she was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and was being treated for the infectious disease when she returned to the Bay Area on Dec. 13, the paper reports.

She checked into Stanford Hospital on Dec. 19, Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the Santa Clara County health officer, said. He noted that being very sick and feeling frail, the woman refrained from Christmas shopping and thus did not have contact with crowds of people.

County and federal health officials are at present trying to identify persons that may have had contact with the woman, thus being at risk of contamination.

The people present in the emergency room where the sick woman went on Dec. 19 have already been notified, as well as her family, Fenstersheib said.

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified 44 people from 16 states who were within two rows of the woman on American Airlines Flight 293 from New Delhi to Chicago's O'Hare airport on Dec. 13, according to the Chronicle.

On Thursday, the CDC sent health officials in the 16 states a list of the names and asked for help in having them tested for TB.

CDC officials assured the public that people who traveled with the woman on flights shorter than eight hours are not at risk of contamination. Eight or more hours in the presence of someone infected with TB is considered prolonged exposure entailing risk of contamination.

Fenstersheib added that the woman is now in stable condition at the hospital, where she will remain in isolation until her disease is no longer infectious. This could take weeks.

The multidrug-resistant strain of TB s considered a public health problem because it is much more difficult to treat.