UN: Killer strains of tuberculosis may 'spiral out of control'

[babylonsister]

UN: Killer strains of tuberculosis may 'spiral out of control'

By Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers


The world is on the cusp of an explosion of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases that could deluge hospitals and leave physicians fighting a nearly untreatable malady with little help from modern drugs, global experts said Wednesday.

"The situation is already alarming, and poised to grow much worse very quickly," said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization.

With Bill Gates at her side, Chan urged health officials from 27 countries at a three-day forum on drug-resistant TB to recognize the warning signs of what looms ahead, saying that traditional drugs are useless against some strains of tuberculosis and health care costs for treating those strains can be 100 to 200 times more than for regular tuberculosis.

"This is a situation set to spiral out of control. Call it what you may: a time bomb or a powder keg. Any way you look at it, this is a potentially explosive situation," Chan warned.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/65242.html

[dipsydoodle]

1. And like it or not

it gets imported and spread by immigrants and that's a fact - certainly here in the UK. It's been going on for years.

[babylonsister]

2. You're right. One person on an airplane, and

TB could be spread in no time.

[dipsydoodle]

3. We had some quite disgusting problems

back in the seventies when known carriers of hepatitus , who seemingly were immune to it themselves , had complete freedom of movement to spread it.

My mother's older sister died of TB when she was only 21 just before I was born back in the '40s. It had more or less been completely eradicated here in the UK donkeys years ago and now its back with super strains too.x(