Posted on 01/27/2007 3:53:01 PM PST by blam
Virulent TB in South Africa may imperil millions
By MICHAEL WINES
Published: January 27, 2007
JOHANNESBURG: More than a year after a virulent strain of tuberculosis killed 52 of 53 infected patients in a rural South African hospital, experts here and abroad say the disease has most likely spread to neighboring countries, and some say urgent action is essential to halt its advance.
Several expressed concern at what they called South Africa's sluggish response to a health emergency that, left unchecked, could prove hugely expensive to contain and could threaten millions across sub-Saharan Africa.
The director of the government's tuberculosis programs called those concerns unfounded and said officials were doing everything reasonable to combat the outbreak.
The form of TB, known as XDR for extensively drug-resistant, cannot be effectively treated with most first- and second-line tuberculosis drugs, and some doctors consider it incurable.
Since it was first detected last year in KwaZulu-Natal Province, bordering the Indian Ocean, additional cases have been found at 39 hospitals in South Africa's other eight provinces. In interviews on Friday, several epidemiologists and TB experts said the disease had probably moved into Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique — countries that share borders and migrant work forces with South Africa — and perhaps to Zimbabwe, which sends hundreds of thousands of destitute refugees to and from South Africa each year.
But no one can say with certainty, because none of those countries have the laboratories and clinical experts necessary to diagnose and track the disease. Ominously, none have the money and skills that would be needed to contain it should it begin to spread.
Even in South Africa, where nearly 330 cases have been officially documented, evidence of the disease's spread is mostly anecdotal, and epidemiological work needed to trace its progress is only..
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Let me guess, the CIA is doing field testing in Africa again.
One pandemic cancelling out another.
Remember how the smart-asses handled AIDS? Do nothing but suck-up to queers, that oughta fix it.
*groan*
So, does this mean that U.S. taxpayers have to pony up another $8 billion to combat TB in Africa like we've done to fight AIDS?
ping
Well, we'd better throw 40 billion dollars at this, as we have with AIDS. That's sure to stop it in it's tracks! /s
I stole it from "Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask"
Coming to y our neighborhood soon...!
I thought GWB gave $15 billion.
Coming soon to a civilized country near you.
The reason it's so deadly is because the only people it infects are those who have already acquired AIDS.
More diversity hardship visas needed. /sarc
Stay out of SF, huh?
Yeah, and Haiti. They are doomed.
what doesn't imperil Africa
Sadly, these days, there's so much concern for indiviuals *rights* that people would scream bloody murder if you infringed on their *rights* to freely associate and do what ever they felt like, even if they ended up killing someone by infecting them. So much for the right of the rest of us to live a life free of the fear of being killed by some selfish slobs inconsideration.
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