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A Virulent New Form of TB


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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

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.

Source: Full interview: Newsweek

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Iatrogenia in a nut shell - the medical industry inadvertently causing disease. In this case, they made it worse. Pathogens are annoying and need to be completely eradicated else some survive that are totally resistant to the drus currently available. It's like "chasing the dragon" in a way, as new drugs are found to stop infections which will eventually become immune to the drugs and the race continues, never finishing.

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Do you think it has something to do with GMO's ?

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMOSandHumanHealth.php

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1230-08.htm

Those antibodies are being engineered into maize in a highly experimental effort in South Africa. Other antibodies for use in a tuberculosis vaccine are also being inserted into maize.

n the early 1980s a human gene for insulin production was stitched into the DNA (the building blocks of the cells of all living things) of the bacteria E coli. With a much lower manufacturing cost, this process completely overtook the traditional source of insulin -- the pancreas of cows and pigs.

Thousands of diabetics have experienced bad reactions and many have died as a result of this new GE insulin, called synthetic or ”human” insulin, according to the Society for Diabetic Rights.

Despite this, more than 100 bio-pharmaceutical products or ”biologics” -- serums, antitoxins, vaccines and biological therapeutics ¡- have been approved for use in the United States. Worldwide, another 500 are in clinical trials. These are not always new drugs; many simply replace existing products, like insulin.

The demand for these biologics is skyrocketing, with the market expected to top 56 billion U.S. dollars in 2006 in the United States alone.

However, GE bacterial fermentation systems cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build, require perfect growing conditions and are easily contaminated by other bacteria. By comparison, plants are bargain-basement ”bio factories,” costing potentially just 10 percent of the fermentation manufacturing process.

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