HEALTH

Worse Than SARS?

How mistakes in the treatment of TB resulted in a virulent and fatal new form of the disease.

By Anne Underwood | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Oct 29, 2008

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You'd think the emergence of a fatal disease—especially one that can be spread without physical contact—would be a big story. Yet a threatening new form of tuberculosis called extremely drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, has garnered almost no attention. That could soon change, with a new publicity campaign in 50 cities worldwide, centered on a series of dramatic pictures by photographer James Nachtwey and an Internet campaign at xdrtb.org. As the campaign shows, TB is not just an affliction of an earlier era. It still infects millions of people, killing about 1 in 6 of them. In the 1990s, there emerged a scary new version called multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). And now there is XDR, which is even harder to treat.

NEWSWEEK's Anne Underwood spoke with Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the World Health Organization's Stop TB Department, and Anna Cataldi, world ambassador for WHO's Stop TB Partnership. Cataldi has served in the past as a U.N. messenger of peace for former Secretary General Kofi Annan, and as spokeswoman for UNICEF in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Why have we heard so little about XDR-TB? When did it emerge?
Anna Cataldi: It emerged several years ago. [The first official reports from the WHO and CDC were published in March 2006.] It didn't get much attention because of all the publicity surrounding avian flu.

How many cases of XDR are there?
Dr. Mario Raviglione: We don't know for sure, because the vast majority of countries have no sophisticated laboratory equipment to detect it. There are nine million cases of TB every year, including half a million cases of MDR. The general estimate is that about 10 percent of MDR cases are actually XDR. We're talking 30,000 to 50,000 cases worldwide in the latest estimate.

Cataldi: Some of the first places where it was found were South Africa, where it is spread by miners who are migrants, and in jails in the former Soviet Union. But now there are cases in more than 40 countries. A few cases have been diagnosed in New York.

How high is the death rate?
Cataldi: In KwaZulu-Natal [South Africa], there is 90 percent mortality. Patients survive one to two months. There are no good drugs to treat it. That's why it's so dangerous. It could become much worse than SARS. If it spreads, it could turn into a deadly pandemic.

Raviglione: But the mortality rate isn't entirely known. In other countries with more aggressive treatment protocols, mortality is more like 50 percent. In Peru, a study in the New England Journal of medicine showed a cure rate of 60 percent. That's the highest anyone has achieved with XDR.

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Posted By: Donald C @ 11/04/2008 11:57:58 PM

I believe what killed bee population has mutated.let me explain.genetically modified corn can not be regrown,for a second year crop.also,when this wheat decays it turns into a white spore,that in the past longed in lungs of bees,as green algae.made up of starch,that could not be broken down ,by the bees.the white bacteria,had not corn sugar,.but a tree starch,with green algae,that would grow inside bees killing them
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Posted By: ObamaYesWeCan @ 11/01/2008 5:29:10 PM

This moronic scumbag Samuel J. Wurzelbacher "Joe the Plumber" had his AZ driver license suspended

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/128323

Wurzelbacher, who lived in Mesa in 2000 and had an Arizona driver's license, had his driver's license suspended by the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division on May 4, 2000, following a nonpayment of a court-imposed fine for civil traffic violations, according to court records.

...owes nearly $1,200 in back taxes, according to public records, still owes more than $700 to the Mesa court system.

Records show he was cited for failure to stop at a red light and for failure to provide proof of insurance on Feb. 9, 2000, in a black Dodge truck at the intersection of Dobson and Baseline roads in Mesa.

After failing to pay his original fine of $627.50 issued in March 2000, his license was suspended and the fine was handed over to a collection agency along with a 16 percent surcharge. The now-resident of Holland, Ohio, still owes $727.90 to the Mesa Municipal Court, according to court records.

Hopefully the collection agency will break both of his legs so he'll never be able to walk nor work ever again. This typical Republican scumbag deserves it.
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Posted By: C. MacLean @ 10/31/2008 6:05:55 PM

Worse than SARS? Not even close. SARS is a highly contagious respiratory virus; TB is a slow-growing bacteria that a healthy body often marshalls an effective defense against. It takes only days to contract and die of SARS - it takes years to contract and die of TB, years when therapies can be very effectively mounted against TB.

TB becomes an issue for people with poor health, poor ventilation, poor nutrition, and compromised immune systems, which is why it is such a problem in third-world countries, but rare in industrialized countries.

Any time a germ develops resistance it is cause for concern, but XDR-TB is rare, and will remain so. Yes, we need to be vigilant, but media hype is completely uncalled for.