A woman who traveled from India is currently being treated at the National Institutes of Health for a difficult to cure form of tuberculosis called XDR TB.

U.S. health officials are now trying to find anyone who may have come into contact with the woman who had been diagnosed with the highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.

The woman flew from India to Chicago in April and then traveled to Missouri and Tennessee before returning to Chicago where she sought treatment for the disease, about seven weeks after arriving in the United States. While she was hospitalized, the woman was diagnosed with the highly drug-resistant form of tuberculosis (XDR-TB). On Friday, the woman was transferred by special air and ground ambulances to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

Currently the woman is in isolation and the hospital "is providing care an treatment for the patient in connection with an existing NIH clinical protocol for treating TB, including XDR forms," the NIH said.

TB is a disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This bacteria typically attacks the lungs, but can also attack any part of the body such as the kidneys, spine or even the brain. While today it is commonly treated with antibiotics, new forms of the bacteria have developed that are highly resistant to most treatments available.

While this type of tuberculosis is resistant to antibiotics, it is no more contagious than other forms of the disease, meaning the risk to the public is low, according to the CDC.

"Factors that determine the spread of bacteria that cause TB depend on the number and density of persons in any given place," says Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "Spending long periods of time with an infected person also increases the risk of transmission... [and] overcrowded conditions found in prisons, hospitals, as well as spaces with inadequate ventilation, raise risk for transmission."

Glatter did, however, note that people with compromised immune systems, such as those with HIV or AIDS, are especially vulnerable to the infection.

"One way we can reduce chances for spread of TB is by properly isolating and rapidly treating patients who are infectious," Glatter says. "Patients with TB need to follow proper cough hygiene, covering their mouths with a tissue or using a surgical mask in poorly ventilated areas."

XDR-TB is rare in the United States, with only 63 reported cases between 1993 and 2011. Drug-resistant forms of the disease are found more commonly in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.