The Secretary star checked himself into a Los Angeles clinic after suffering for weeks with his own cold-like symptoms.
Spader refused to wait for a doctor after discovering he was a few paces away from a man with the deadly disease - but his exit plan was thwarted when snappers pounced on him as soon as he stepped outside the building.
He explains, "I'm a bit phobic... I told him (the doctor), 'You should be shutting down the whole street!' So I go out, I flee the building, I'm standing outside and there are the paparazzi snapping photos and video. I can't go anywhere, there's no car, so I'm faced with that dilemma: the paparazzi or go back in the building with the swine flu. I went back in the building.".