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Tuberculosis May Become A Global Threat Again

Posted by Hemos on from the the-rerise-of-bacteria dept.

Iphtashu Fitz writes "The journal Nature Medicine is due to release a report today on how highly drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are on the verge of becoming a global epidimic. Strains of TB that are highly resistant to antibiotics are becoming increasingly prevalent in places like Russia, eastern Europe, and China, and only small changes are required to make these strains start spreading quickly. Treatment for multiple-drug-resistant strains of TB requires a carefully monitored cocktail of drugs taken for months on end, a regimin that many, especially in poorer countries are unlikely to follow to completion. The strategy used by the World Health Organization to combat TB, the "directly observed treatment, short course" or DOTS, involves using trained health workers to watch patients take their long courses of drugs, since even a little carelessness could result in TB mutating into a more drug resistant form within the patient." Oh, Alexander Fleming ? where art thou now?

8 of 480 comments (clear)

  1. Where art thou. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh, Alexander Fleming where art thou now?

    Dead.

  2. It's about time... by MalaclypseTheYounger · · Score: 5, Funny

    First it was going to be AIDS, then it was SARS, cancer is slowly being beaten...

    Maybe a nice new healthy TB strain will be the new plague to rid ourselves of some of the population.

    How long has it been, at least 400-600 years since a nice big population dwindling event has occurred...

    My daily commute isn't getting any shorter, oil seems to be running out... air is getting more and more polluted... time for the G-O-D to clean the house out a little...

    (and if it's my time to go, I'm fine with that)

    --
    Check out the best P2P sharing website: MEDIACHEST.COM
    1. Re:It's about time... by carpe_noctem · · Score: 3, Funny

      What happens if something like this reaches India or Pakistan, or perhaps one or more of several nations in South America, in which shantytowns with no sanitation and crushing population density?

      M-O-O-N, that spells "we're all fucked!"

      --
      "Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
  3. Re:Golden Age by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    My silly pagan friend,

    Evolution is a fraud. God created all creatures exactly as the are now and they cannot change!!

  4. Whew! Made the cut! by PackMan97 · · Score: 2, Funny
    People under 30 have a bleak future.
    Damn! Just turned 30 this year...I didn't realize how lucky I had it! Sucks for my wife though who doesn't turn 30 until December.
  5. useless alarmism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Tubercolosis? LOL! This is not a problem! We live in a perfectly disinfected world... COUGH!! ... no bacteria can survive COUGHHH COUGH! we have the most advanced antibiotics and medicines... COoOoooOUGH! COUuUuuuGH!!
    COUGH... WTF!?... COUGH! COUGGGHHH! SCOUGHGCH... BLEURG...
    *STUNF*

  6. tuber-culosis? whew... by Quinn · · Score: 1, Funny

    Lucky I'm not a potato.

    --
    #19845
  7. Re:Artificial lungs? by skwirl42 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thanks, this and the sibling post from the 3rd year med student answered my question. :)

    So this is somewhere where we'd need nanotechnology to provide us with the solution. And given the right design, an inhale/exhale wouldn't be necessary, it could just constantly filter oxygen out of the air. Then it can't sit in the chest cavity, of course, without some separate exhaust port.

    Of course, that just gave me an idea for a great sci-fi comedy sketch... :)