India reports completely drug-resistant Tuberculosis
India Reports Completely Drug-Resistant TB
By Maryn McKenna January 9, 2012 | 2:22 pm | Categories: Science Blogs, Superbug
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/invincible-tb-india/
"Well, this is a bad way to start the year.
Over the past 48 hours, news has broken in India of the existence of at least 12 patients infected with tuberculosis that has become resistant to all the drugs used against the disease. Physicians in Mumbai are calling the strain TDR, for Totally Drug-Resistant. In other words, it is untreatable as far as they know.
News of some of the cases was published Dec. 21 in an ahead-of-print letter to the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, which just about everyone missed, including me. (But not, thankfully, the hyper-alert global-health blogger Crawford Kilian, to whom I hat-tip.) That letter describes the discovery and treatment of four cases of TDR-TB since last October. On Saturday, the Times of India disclosed that there are actually 12 known cases just in one hospital, the P. D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre; in the article, Hindujas Dr. Amita Athawale admits, The cases we clinically isolate are just the tip of the iceberg. And as a followup, the Hindustan Times reported yesterday that most hospitals in the city by extension, most Indian cities dont have the facilities to identify the TDR strain, making it more likely that unrecognized cases can go on to infect others.
Why this is bad news: TB is already one of the worlds worst killers, up there with malaria and HIV/AIDS, accounting for 9.4 million cases and 1.7 million deaths in 2009, according to the WHO. At the best of times, TB treatment is difficult, requiring at least 6 months of pill combinations that have unpleasant side effects and must be taken long after the patient begins to feel well."
Hugabear
(10,340 posts)The planet is vastly overpopulated. It might not be a popular sentiment, but disease is a way for nature to ease overpopulation. We can come up with newer treatments, but bacteria and viruses will just find ways to adapt.
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)the overpopulation doesnt help certainly because it increases the odds something as deadly if not deadlier can develop and spread faster in really dense population centers.
Response to polly7 (Original post)
Tesha This message was self-deleted by its author.
snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)It's be interesting to know how people are estimated to be infected