Don't forget the thousands of doctors who prescribe antibiotics for the common cold and the patients who demand them. Every time my best friend and her daughter get the sniffles, they run to their doctor's office for antibiotics, which don't work against viruses, and he writes a prescription without blinking an eye. Add to that the number of patients taking antibiotics who don't complete the recommended antibiotic regimen. Like the article stated, not completing the full cycle of antibiotics helps to breed stronger, more drug resistant bacteria.

The problem is not the prescription of antibiotics. Usually the problem is that the prescription is not strong enough. They should prescribe in high doses long enough to eradicate disease.

India has 20% of the population thus it is normal that they have 20% of the world's drug resistant bacterial cases.

And the additional problem that the US Government non only condones but encourages (by making it profitable) US companies to seek products and to hire people from places like India, China which increases the circulation of all these horrible diseases.

Right. And forget that corporate rubbish about over prescription by doctors garbage. 75% of all manufactured antibiotics are for otherwise perfectly healthy cattle. Human usage is around 25%. But yet they claim it is the human usage that is the issue?

Soon enough the mad scientist will come up with a strain that will spread faster and more efficient..I just read the insight on these type of weapons..

Saying the USDA is useless and needs to be disbanded is rather ignorant. It would only open the door for more lazed uncontrolled production standards. Look at 30,000,000 turkeys recalled last year, the rise in ecol i in produce and other events which the FDA and USDA battled and fought and won over, protecting us from poor production standards. Just because their is inefficiency and sometimes corrupt practices in the FDA and USDA doesn't mean it needs to be abandoned, merely reformed and made competent is all. Ignorance is blithe.

Evolution is inevitable. The proliferation, or poor use of antibodies only hastens their gradual obsolescence. They've only been around for 100 years or so, and many are already much less effective. After all, only the select few microbes that survive reproduce.

I know a couple people that traveled to India.

They said it was the worst "vacation" they ever took. Raw sewage runs down the streets, the air is so thick with exhaust and pollution your throat hurts, and as soon as you go anywhere in public there's 10 "untouchables" begging and touching you for money.

I wouldnt be caught dead there.

I'm sure ritual bathing in the fecal/corpse stew known as the Ganges river had nothing to do with this...

Buy from local farmers if you live any where near a rural area. That is one way to protect yourself from contaminated meat and veggies.

Beyond the overuse of antibiotics, which is correct, one must wonder how many foreign visitors bring dangerous communicable diseases right into this country, every hour of every day? There is NO verifiable process which would identify foreign travelers with dangerous diseases who visit our shores. Air travel facilitates the spread of these organisms much too easily. "Medical" Passports should be issued along with Travel Passports issued by national governments.

Damn, 2012 already and they've picked the virus-of-the-year already? SARS, Avian flu, swine-flu, west Nile virus, Etc...

Every year they tell us there's a new bug that's going to KILL US ALL. I'm not playing the game this year.

Well if I'm not mistaken the plague was brought to Europe in the Middle ages.

Now we have a TB variation totally resistant to all presently know treatments.

Mother natures way of telling us that she is not happy the way we are spreading across this earth and she is getting ready for a major reduction of the human gene pool?

If not now TB there certainly will be many more cases like this with other bugs

Simple Darwinian evolution

is genetic mutation and Darwinian evolution different?

I keep waiting form my dog to turn into a Star War creature............

have a good week.

@ Cynical

You mean God didn't allow the viruses to change????

Atlas shrugging,

Genetic mutation is the mechanism that evolution works through. You will be waiting a long time because that isn't how things work.

The USDA is a waste of time. Other agencies do exactly the same things they do, and they are just a way to do double government oversight with no real positive results. They have caused more trouble and offered less help than just about any other agency. Disbanding them in favor of the other agencies would not hurt one thing. Ignorance is accepting the doubling the budget in favor of a useless agency.

A recent article noted that the USDA was upset because of a plant that was growing in a cemetery that was not native to the US. (BTW, most plants in cemeteries aren't native, either.) This one was on a gypsy grave. They made a really big deal out of it, too. However, the very next week, the headline said the USDA was too undermanned to inspect 95% seafood brought into the US. I'm not saying that being diligent over one plant is insignificant, but one plant versus tons upon tons of seafood isn't putting the interests of this country at the forefront. The same goes for the use of firearms over raw milk. Give me a break. The USDA needs a reality check.

This is just as bad a problem in America as India; private doctors do not treat infections with any kind of urgency, and often do not treat infections long enough to actually kill the infection, instead, infections can become drug-resistant.

Immediately people blame doctors for prescribing antibiotics for colds. It doesn't happen as often as the DAILY feeding of antibiotics to animals that are not sick. And those antibiotics, and the resistant bacteria, are passed to humans who handle meat before it is cooked; sure, wash your hands, but hope that you don't have a small cut or irritation anywhere.

People are under-prescribed antibiotics for serious ailments: look at flesh-eating bacteria that often are not diagnosed soon enough. There are far too few doctors that specialize in infectious disease, and far too many illnesses that come into America from foreign sources, but those sources are not taken into account.

Last November I had periorbital cellulitis (and luckily, I didn't lose my eye), but, the hospital gave me a single shot of antibiotics, some pills for only 5 days, and my private doctor would not give me any more, even though I still had symptoms. I have no idea if any other doctor in my city would have given me more antibiotics, but at the very least, weakened by this rapid infection, I was surprised to find that doctors do not take such an infection seriously.

My daughter was given antibiotics during a surgery, just in case, and because our family is prone to infections (no, none of us has HIV, and blood tests do not show a bad immune system, but we do get a lot of infections). She developed sepsis around one of her surgery wounds, and because she didn't have a fever, she waited days to have it checked. Very luckily for her, it hadn't spread further, but when it was lanced, it smelled terrible. And yes, then she was finally given follow-up antibiotics; strong ones, because she was told the bacteria were drug-resistant. Why she didn't have enough antibiotics continually after surgery is a mystery; this seems to be standard. The antibiotics were only given in IV during surgery, none afterwards until she developed sepsis.

My husband had a major surgery and had two infections in the surgical wound. We were trained by the nurses to do a wet-dry packing of the wound twice a day; this was not easy for a family that is not professional, and trust me, it is gross. But it did clear up the infections after a couple of months. The trouble is, it delayed him from starting chemo therapy, and he is struggling to survive. Where were the antibiotics for him that might have kept this from happening, and might have sped his recovery, allowing him to receive the chemo earlier?

We don't sue doctors in my family. We have good health insurance. We play by the rules, and take medicine as directed. But we all ask, why aren't we given appropriate antibiotics when needed? These infections only breed more and more resistant bacteria. Not treating with antibiotics, or sporadic treatment first with antibiotics then not, is the best way to develop stronger and stronger bacteria. And this is within the U.S.A. I'm sure there are thousands of similar cases.

Hey Where'sWaldo, you will have to make passports for all the birds, insects, and other animals that cross our borders. And there is plenty of disease here. If you try to keep this hemisphere a hothouse, you just might have the situation that developed about 500 to 300 years ago, where suddenly people die of diseases they have developed no resistance for: malaria, small pox, measles, etc., but this time new diseases. We have already imported the West Nile virus (an encephalitis), dengue fever, and several others. Some foreign bacteria are thought to be causes of rheumatoid arthritis. The trouble is that doctors aren't checking for these; they're already here. Remember Poe's "House of the Red Death?"

Perhaps if the US wasn't rounding up over 800,000 people per year in and forcing them to reside in tight living quarters where the disease can spread more quickly. The War-on-Drugs is the cause of at least some of this problem and it is the fault of anyone who supports prohibition laws.

There's just too many chickens in the coop!

Evolution is inevitable. The proliferation, or poor use of antibodies only hastens their gradual obsolescence. They've only been around for 100 years or so, and many are already much less effective. After all, only the select few microbes that survive reproduce.

The best and most accurate comment so far. Thanks Charles.

@ Lizzy

It's very true that those creatures in the animal world can spread diseases and some are brought to foreign shores by plane and boat ( West Nile Virus.) It is also quite true that many diseases we Humans incur aren't/can't be transmitted by animals OR insects. Some of deadliest organisms started their infectious lives in China (World Flu Pandemics) created by cross species contamination brought about by filthy living conditions on rural farms in China. When the farm animals live IN the homes of the farmers and otherwise close proximity, the viral 'stew' begins and is eventually spread by......................airline travel across the planet in HOURS. I see your point but countries certainly aren't doing enough to stem SOME of the infections spread by international travel. Doing little or nothing certainly won't help.

It looks like the defenders of USDA are busy collapsing links. Just one more reason to get rid of them.

TB is something that really needs addressed. It was scourge on the planet for centuries. We don't want those days returning. Let's hope that good science will help eradicate this bug forever.

I wouldn't get too worried over this...just another potential outcome of "man-made" evolution. On the bright side, global climate change could be less of a concern. So, towards which potential disaster should the tax dollars for which we no longer have control be channelled? Cough, cough....

Let's have open borders! Yay! [/end sarcasm]

Whooping cough in northern California, drug resistant TB from India, Ebola from African "bush meat" and monkeys......(read "The Hot Zone" some time, it'll scare you silly)

We need some common sense precautions, and we need secure borders.

Sure, nothing's perfect, but we need to try.

Humanity's end won't originate with the fire of a nuclear holocaust, it will originate in some slum in India or China and will spread like wildfire.

Try again; there were two new strains of a deadly flu this summer in Indiana and Pennsylvania tied to US livestock.

I would think these strains would most likely evolve in the US where there are lots of homeless people going in and out of jail and receiving partial treatments. It is only in the US where the disease can become immune one antibiotic at a time.

Actually Jeff......both scenerios might converge right there in India. There are people just 'itching' to use the bomb in an apparently 'cleansing' manner. Combine that with the people who believe in the holiness of pre-emtive strikes and it might not be as far-fetched as we might think. After all.....could anyone imagine our current mindset about waging war 15 years ago?

@ Beth, disease outbreaks here in the states can be very scary! The vast # of the poor and poor treatment in China & India is what will lead to the multiple mutations of deadly disease and spread like crazy, that is the unimaginable. Our zoonosis cases are at least contained by doctors, in the impoverished areas any virulent disease will run wild.

One of the problems with a caste system, is by forcing people (the untouchables) to live in poverty and such abject filth, the country is creating a hotbed of diseases. These diseases don't care what your social standing is...all they want is a host.

When one from the lower caste needs medical attention, many times they can't recieve the proper medication, either the doctor is ill equipped to handle the disease, or the patient can't obtain access to the proper medication for the duration required.

That is, IF they can find a doctor that will treat them, and if they can even get the medication in the first place.

Now before anyone starts jumping all over the "poor". Remember that in India, the caste system is a "birthright". If you were born into a certain class, you cannot rise above it, it is imposed on you.

The lower caste is concidered to be less than animals, and in many eyes, disposable. This is bad for India and for the world. Let these disease's fester and grow and mutate, don't treat your citizen's properly when there is an outbreak, and the disease will eventually threaten everyone, from the leper to the leader.

What's that quote that comes to mind? Oh yeah..."None of us are safe, until all of us are safe."

The lower caste is concidered to be less than animals, and in many eyes, disposable. This is bad for India and for the world. Let these disease's fester and grow and mutate, don't treat your citizen's properly when there is an outbreak, and the disease will eventually threaten everyone, from the leper to the leader.

Sounds like the Alternative GOP health care plan. Replace the word caste with class and off you go. No Insurance? "Let 'em die!"

Such diseases have a way of crossing economic and cultural barriers. India's massive population provides a perfect incubator for such diseases. Many of the 'old' school of antibiotics have been used to the point where the disease they were to treat have mutated beyond their efficacy.

Note, however, that most of the truly virulent disease are viral. No antibiotic on the planet can do much for viral diseases. The pandemics of the past are now treatable, bubonic plague is now treated with antibiotics. Hanthavirus, ebola, AIDS, etc. are all viral disease, ditto the flu virus. Untreatable TB is of little concern here, for now...

i always find it interesting how something like three words on a comment board can start tangents on here.

caste systems, the GOP, nuclear bombs, the homeless, and China.

interesting jumps around a teeny weeny bug with some interesting properties.

dblhelix.....can't speak for GOP, nuclear bombs, and China...HOWEVER, the caste system and homelessness are very relevant to this thread.

It is the people of the lower caste system that are the topic of this thread, and the outbreak of diseases in this caste, and the view of the culture that debilitates the treatment of these diseases.

The caste system is very interesting, and many books have been written on the topic. It is an archaic system, and really has no place in modern culture, and while it may seem bizarre to many, it is just simply the way some things work in other parts of the world...like it or not.

The only way the Indian government is going to overcome this is to ban the caste system, and in some ways they are trying. They have made it illegal for parents to marry off their children at ages 6 and 7. However, it is in these lower caste systems where the practice still takes place, and they (government) do little to enforce, mainly because the caste system is an entrenchment, and no one really wants to "deal" with them (the untouchables). IF the government were to completely ban the caste system, that would mean the higher caste will lose their standing also, and THEY are the ones in charge.

Now if all this has a vaguely familiar ring to it...you will understand the associations to what is going on right under our noses in the good ol' US of A.

Any questions?

So you're comparing the caste system in India to what goes on here? whoo boy.

"Any questions?"

yeah, about that Pam. i was never a fan of the humanities in uni undergrad. i'm one of those odd biologist people that likes to investigate what actually makes the bugs work.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a bug that likes to lodge in wet and squishy lung tissue. after its long incubation period it'll start to make its way out by triggering inflammation to get the host to cough on other people. in the end, the bug can kill the host along with infecting other people. now for the bug to become antibiotic resistant, a bug population has to come into contact with and survive rounds of that antibiotic.

what you're saying in earlier posts is that the bug doesn't care what class the host is in and that it's just going to develop antibiotic resistance on its own without the patient being treated with the antibiotic it's developing resistance to. am i right?

http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/136/2/333.full

You may eliminate some but not all. It will take a cocktail of drugs to eliminate all of them. Of course this story is about "totally resistant" strains. Older treatments won't work.

Bacteria never lose their resistance. They maintain the necessary information in plasmids. It can be passed along to other Bacteria through either Transformation, Transduction, or Bacterial Conjugation. So thank countries like Mexico( where antibiotics are purchased over the counter,) when there are strains of Bacteria that are unstoppable.

C-C-C-C-C-YEAH! BABY!! I DO COCAINE!!!!!!

LOL, jk.

Cracks me up, "Leonard". Rock on, dude, rockon!

Send them all to spend the first few days after arriving in this country in a closed room with all the Senators and Congressmen. Bet they would set records on making sure all people coming into this country are healthy.

International tourism is a huge boost to our economy. Would you go on vacation somewhere if it meant going through lots of expensive medical tests? Besides, the people who get this form of TB (or any form of TB) are extremely poor and living in crowded conditions. The odds of them hopping on a plane to the US are minute.

Indian Immigrants must have a chest Xray to enter. If the visa is not issued within 6 months they must go and get another physical and chest Xray. The biggest carrier of TB to the USA is coming from South of the Border. No TB skin test and no Xrays. Makes you feel so safe doesn't it. The Chicken processing plants are in N. Alabama. One has been shut down at least twice in the last 5 years for Illegals with TB. Really Safe

So one way or another you benefit from tourism, El; what about the majority of Americans, who only face the risk of disease?

Elpea,

It's not the poor person who couldn't afford to travel here... it's the doctors or nurses who have been exposed to them that can afford to travel that I'm worried about...

I guess some people can't anything past a dollar bill!

The rich have poor servants that can have infected relatives, and they bring their servants. Rich from this country travel and bring back germs themselves. Evangelicals and do-gooders send people into poor areas, and they return after being exposed. However, much of this would happen even if strictly regulated, and for the most part, the problem is already here: dengue fever, West Nile virus, and many other illnesses including resistant illnesses came into the U.S. during the two Bush administrations (Sr. and Jr.), with the species of mosquitoes to spread them. Yes, we have a crisis, especially in parts of the country with no health care such as the southeast. You can't get HIV drugs in the southeast without insurance; and certainly not other medicines to stop illnesses that could spread to the general population. Alabama is the dengue capital of the U.S.

doggiemom...while they are at it, inspect them for bed bugs too!!!

Elizabeth, you can't be serious? You are going to blame the Bushes for many of the illnesses that have come into the U.S.? Before anyone says I'm only saying this because I'm a republican, believe me I would say the same thing if she tried to blame it on Clinton and Obama.

You really need to get out more Elizabeth. Since when did the southeast have no health care? As for HIV drugs, because of the costs involved, no one except for the rich or those with insurance can pay for the drugs. Of course, most of the people with HIV and no insurance still manage to get, at least part of the cocktail.

Globalization has had some unintended consequenses. Some of those are the spread of infectious diseases. Sometimes it goes from our "developed" western world, sometimes it comes into our "developed" western world. Look at smallpox and what it did the the American Indians. This is not new, we just have more knowledge about it now.

And these unintended consequenses don't just apply to human diseases. Invasive plants, animals and insects are also effecting the ecosystems in the US and around the world. Some examples - zebra mussels in the great lakes, emerald ash borer, hemlock wolly adelgid and some plant examples - honeysuckle, oriental privette, Japanese knotweed, multiflora rose and lots and lots more. How about those Burmese Pythons in the Florida everglades?

Another excellent point, Northern...!(I remember the gypsy moth infestation when I lived in New York. What a disaster!)

Just recently we had a shocking bit of news over here. We found out that the U of Wisconsin was cooking up a highly virulent, and contagious version of avian flu. As if we don't have enought to worry about in the natural world, we have to start cooking this crap up, too....and this is just they stuff we KNOW about.

An excellent point by you too, Pam. If, in our "intelligence" we keep fooling around with these sorts of germs, we won't have to worry about TB, dengue fever, or other things; we'll supply our own! How many cretins would love to get their hands on this sort of killer, and set it loose even if it kills all the "holy" people in their inner circle? Or maybe it will get loose by accident...

I believe that what separates us from other animals is our ability to care for each other. If it was your mother, spouse, or child who was infected, would you feel the same way? Or are you entitled to better health care because you were lucky enough to be born to a more affluent family?

It is probably poor healthcare for the poor that bred these germs. Living close together to save on housing expense. Eating communally to share on food expense. sleeping 10 to a room and seeing the doctor only when you are at death's door to save on medical expense. Yes, all you christian right can say is let them fend for themselves.

If corporations are people, who do they worship? Christ? Budda? Muhammed? Bhrama? or do the corporations worship Mammon?

nanette, just a thought but..most epidemics start in the poor and crowded slum areas of the world, always have. Poor people are the servants of the rich, the gardeners, maids, drivers, nannies and such. They cook the food and serve it, they keep the bathrooms clean and sell food by the roadside.They touch things that the wealthy touch and the epidemics spread. Do you really think that by letting disease rip through the poor area of any country that it won't spread like a fire into the mansions of the rich?

We all feel and understand the apparent injustice of this situation. In the current climate, we have to ask what is the best course of action. To begin a course of medication, that if not completed, produces super bugs that can not be cured, should that course of medication be given? We have to deal in reality and not a theoretical world. My heart goes out to those poor people and sincerely wish that things were different and hope some how in the future we as a race can stop this.

Apparently Ron Paul doesn't think so. Or maybe just thinks it will never hit him or his family, and that is the totality of humanity that one should think about. Odd that he is an MD.

I think you may have something there. For thousands of years this planet had the capability of thinning the herd, regardless of the species. When it was a bad year for the deer herds, the wolves did not have as many pups; when the deer herds were booming, the wolves bigger litters.

Nature had it all figured out until man started messing with the mix. Humans need to realize that we are only the most sophisticated animal, not the end-all, be-all that we like to think. We're just another herd on the planet. As such, nature has ways to make us face that fact and "thin the herd" if we'd just quit screwing it up.

Not every fetus conceived is meant to survive, but the doctors, scientists and religious leaders all seem to think that once conceived, they all have to be born, then we're all supposed to live for 70-80 years, regardless of how well that society is able to care for all those members. Maybe that's whythese horrible, drug resitant diseases strike in slums and ghettos. Society has decided those folks aren't worthy, for whatever reason, so it's time to thin it with a horrible disease, and it's done where folks can't fight back.

Unfortuneately, those who are better off are the ones who have the money for the tools to survive. How many potential Nobel Prize winners are we losing because of the attitude that "If you're born into poverty, you must be worthless"? How many Einsteins? How many Alexander Graham Bells?

Mother Nature will find a way to thin the herd that is raping her over and over in the name of money and profit, and sadly, it's not able to thin the "rapists" so the poorest are the ones to pay the price for all of humanity. I wonder how many more of these drug-resistant diseases we have coming to us....

Eliz, it will impact the rich and poor, good and evil, young and old.

Wealthy nations may not be impacted as quickly, but with the modernization of international travel, any super bug will be able to infect the world quickly. We will realize this too late and you are right that a great "thinning" will occur.

I choose to worry less about my time on earth and focus more on my eternal life.

I remember that in Ursula LeGuin's book "The Lathe of Heaven," there is mention of a thinned society. This has been a theme in literature and film; also "The Twelve Monkeys." We are thinking about it, and we should do everything to prevent it. A thinned population does not guarantee that the good people will come out on top, or that any civilization would be saved. This is my reason for wanting universal health care; first to prevent the spread of disease, and second because why should business have this big expense preventing them from opening new, creative companies? The parts of the world with the worst diseases, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, also have the worst civil war.

I think the fact that we've passed 7 BILLION people on this planet speak volumes. The Earth needs to defend its self against the parasites known as man.

The pandemic is coming, it's only a matter of when, not if.

Elizabeth.....you have stated the problem most eloquently and to the point. And Atlas...you certainly hit the nail on the head, only by caring for each other can we care for ourselves.

I wish I could remember the person who said this, but it rings true, especially when I hear the way some governments deal with these issues.

"It is easier to let 1,000 people die, than it is to govern them."

Chilling.

Pam....which 'elizabeth' are you complementing...there's more than one on this comment thread.

johnnyt...apologies for the confusion. Refering to Elizabeth2017812.

Confussed: Africa is not a country, you know, it is a continent. Your comment makes about as much sense as saying that we are helping Russia by having troups in Germany.

Janine, "President Obama" is his name, but anyway, there is no reason to bring up your illegal status.

Deb, Confussed never said Africa was a country. In fact, some of Obama's relatives do live in Africa. Some live in Kenya and some may live in other African countries, but it's all still Africa.

And our former presidents name was Bush not "shrub" but that probably didn't bother you did it?

The only TB vaccine available, BCG, is a pretty crappy vaccine (hit or miss coverage; sometimes causes TB; limits the ability to detect new disease). I imagine , though, now that with documented XDR TB that the response will be to use it in India even more.

From the CDC...

http://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/vaccine/BCG.htm

India has a strict caste system. Those on the lowest rung are equatable to farm animals

deryl is absolutely correct which is why the introduction of a group from that kind of upbringing on H1b's has caused so many problems.
Many are arrogant and difficult to deal with because they come from the higher caste and once in a position, fight to only allow thier own to be hired in. Corporations have been blind to this because for the moment it increases their profits. It inevitibly will cost them thier business, which they deserve for the greed but the American workers they cheat do not.

it also said that only 10% of those 1 in 3 develop an active case. so really it's only 1 in 30 who have an active infection and can pass it on. Continue that on to the next year, and there is only a 10% chance that any of those new carriers will be active. Read the entire article and maybe your math won't be so wrong.

I believe that people in whom the virus lies dormant are not counted as victims.

Still if one in three carries a dormant infection, and 10 percent of these (2.3 billion) people will eventually develop the disease, figuring an average life span of 50 years, that would argue an annual incidence rate of about 4,600,000, which sounds high.

However, according to Wikipedia, there were an estimated 8.8 million new cases in 2010. So my guestimate is low, probably due to the 50 years I assume an infected person may live before he develops the disease or dies of other causes.

My father tested positive for TB with every test they ever did on him but he never developed an active disease. It remains dormant and is not contagious in many people. I, my brother and my Mom never tested positive.

dman, 2.3 billion is actually about 33% of the world's population (approx. 7 billion).

Okay, TB is a bacterial infection and not viral. I know this is a small point to most people, but it makes a big difference in medicine.

I was exposed to TB as a military brat in Hawaii in the mid-1980s. I was prescribed Isoniazid (one pill daily for one year) to ensure that it would not become an active case. I had to get a checkup once a month .My mother and brother were exposed at the same time as me and had to follow the same regimen. To this day, we have no idea how we came in contact with the bacilli. Perhaps someone coughed in our direction. Who knows. Point being, anyone can be exposed and not even realize it. Americans are not immune!

dman, 2.3 billion is actually about 33% of the world's population (approx. 7 billion).

Yes, tiredofhypocrits, and both the story and my post reference the ratio of 1 in 3 people of the world's population carrying a dormant infection, which is the same as 33%, or close to it as the decimal system allows.

Still if one in three carries a dormant infection, and 10 percent of these (2.3 billion) people will eventually develop the disease, figuring an average life span of 50 years,

It was right there in my post, and in the article. So where's your confusion?

Sorry about that, the way you wrote it, "and 10 percent of these (2.3 billion) people", thought you were saying that 10% was 2.3 billion. If it had been written without the parenthesis I would have gotten it. You're saying that 230 million will eventually develop TB?

Fair enough, tireofhypocrites. My sentence structure was awkward.

You're saying that 230 million will eventually develop TB?

I believe the article is saying this, or citing figures which would indicate it to be so.

If the Wikipedia figure for the annual number of new cases is true, then this number is not too surprising.

Not a problem. When I read the "statistics" some folks like to throw out in these blogs, I have to wonder is they just pulled them out of the air or if they are lying, just to try to get a reaction. Sometimes the "facts" are so bad I feel like pounding my head against a brick wall.

When I saw you comment I thought you might have made a really bad math error, never thinking it could be read differently than the way I saw it.

blah blah blaby blah.

I'm 59 and have been hearing that for 59 years..enough already..produce or shut up.

the Bible also said that men will become lovers of themselves; cronewinter, seems like you hit the mark........

have a good week!

The Bible also says in Matthew 25:32-46 that we must care for others. I would say especially when it is least convenient to us. And that this caring is counted for or against nations, not just individuals, i.e., national policies and charity, not just individual. Mt 25:32 "And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats" Mt. 25:35-36, "For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me." [Also in Isa. 58:7; Ezech. 18:7; Ezech 18:16; Eccli. 7:89]. Mt. 25:40, "Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me."
So, we should be attempting to heal the sick, and make this public policy, because the Bible says we must.

Jesus is 2,000 years late for his appointment. Last I heard, he was sleeping on the job with his feet on the desk, letting the company go to Hell. Maybe God needs to fire him and give Buddha the job instead? At least he won't kill everyone on the planet when he shows up on time.

TB doesn't pass by. It assumes a latent form in your body and reappears when your immune system is weakened.

Mother nature? Please. Humans caused this explosion in resistance through incorrect treatment regimens, poorly made drugs (bad QA and manufacturing processes), bad infection control, and inadequate diagnostics. It also correlates strongly with economic downturns and unemployment. The WHO recommended essentially letting patients die of MDR in poor countries in the 90s but were proven wrong, both in the cost-effectiveness argument and the way the epidemiological spread has taken place. It has to be treated aggressively and immediately, with quality-assured drugs.

Move now, and bring some reading material, such as Edgar Allen Poe's "Masque of the Red Death." Sorry, there is no isolated area, unless you live in a bubble. Birds migrate, and wind storms bring materials from far away. Dust from Africa travels to the midwest of America. Try again.

So if you caught TB, you would just say, "Mother Nature has decreed that I be eliminated from the Earth" and leave it at that?

impossible to isolate anything or anyone on this planet...heck, even spiders can travel great distances on the wind...as do birds...so let's stop thinking in local terms & start using medicines sparingly lest they fail to work when we need them most

We're already there.

Sylvia, see, that's a problem, because when you really do need a medicine the insurance companies have doctors and hospitals second guessing themselves whether to give medication when it is truly needed. How, you ask, do I know this? Simply, I've experienced it.

MomGrandma, my family has experienced it too. The insurance companies keep medicine away, and then the infections become more resistant. Myself, my daughter, and my husband have all experienced this at times. My husband's case is the worst, because his wound infection (not treated with antibiotics) delayed chemo therapy for cancer, and the cancer spread. There is too little sense, and a lot of nonsense to Sylvia's argument.

Mike - President Obama has already started the class warfare agenda. Look at those evil rich people who can receive the best medical care any time they want. Under my Obama Health-care plan I will level the playing field and the decision as to who and when you will receive drugs will be made by a committee.

Oh please. Just, oh please...

Joyce, unfortunately such decisions will not be made by committees nor by doctors. Instead, they continue to be made by the death panels at insurance companies...oh, wait, I forgot, it is OKAY for people to be selected for death as long as someone makes a PROFIT out of that decision. Happened to someone in my own doctor's practice: an elderly man had symptoms of a stroke, and the doctor needed tests immediately. The insurance company turned down the request for services because this poor man was the 1 in 3 claims they routinely turn down/stall just because they can and people give up the fight or die before they can finish the fight. The only option for this man was for him to go to the ER, where his insurance company would not deny the same treatment, although they would pay hundreds of dollars more. Stupidity. Death. These are the wages of profit.

Deb, Bankrupt a nation and world is another option......

have we outgrown our ability to care for everybody? What "system" we will win out in selecting who receives care with our "account is overdrawn" or will Pollyanna come to the rescue?

Warren Buffet is a good billioniar, he will donate billions to the cause (you think?), but even he will run out of money or stop giving.

the great "thinning" or judgement will just have to occur. Think eternally and you have nothing to fear. Got Christ?

Well, everybody posting here has a computer, and by 1960s dollars these computers each cost over a million dollars, right? Of course not. Costs came down. If the insurance companies and big pharma drug companies that use government research money weren't making such a big profit at our expense, we would have health care that our country could pay for. Get your nose out of Ayn Rand; doing that will make you blind.

Elizabeth, you're talking apples and oranges. There is no relationship between the cost of computers and the cost of drugs. Some things have gone up and some have gone down. Keep in mind, the average family income in 1965 was $6500 and in 2010 it was $46,000.

Even your mother takes far fewer antibiotics than the cows, chickens, and pigs that are fed daily with them; that's where the resistant bacteria is mainly coming from. And what about people who aren't just getting minor colds; your mother's doctor is the exception; most doctors won't give enough antibiotics, or for long enough to really complete a treatment, so resistant bacteria develop from too short a treatment.

Your mother? It sounds like the "dozens," but somebody else is supposed to say that about your mother, not you.

Great comment. Probably will be ignored by the bible-thumpers on this thread.

I'd add however that plenty of people could catch the diseased through public transport, elevators, etc., if it reached a high level of prevalence in the population here. Also, people in the colder parts of the country are at greater risk with closed windows half the year.

rossj503 I will give you that thanks, my husband contracted MERSA after a femoral bypass and it was awful..I never saw any infection spread like that..Thank you to all who faithfully treat and comfort the ill and calm their panicked wives and children while putting themselves in harms way. Thank you very much from every member of my family. I will also add that negative pressure wound care is a miracle, along with the massive antibiotics and round the clock care it pulled him through.

I too would like to thank the Doctors and Nurses who work ungodly hours to help treat/cure those of us who knock on death's door. You all are amazing people who sacrifice your time to help others. A lot of people want to talk down to those who work in the medical field and say they do things to make matters worse. it's those people who are preventing us from having the best care, b/c of medical malpractice suits. If so many people weren't afraid of being sued every time a treatment failed we would have the best doctors and nurses on the planet. Once again, a HUGE thank you to all of you who take care of us!

I'd add however that plenty of people could catch the diseased through public transport, elevators, etc., if it reached a high level of prevalence in the population here. Also, people in the colder parts of the country are at greater risk with closed windows half the year.

Don't forget those in hot climates with their windows closed the other half the year with air conditioning.

As we climb closer to 9 billion people on the face of this planet, we grow closer to the limits of the carrying capacity of the planet. Add drug resistant diseases to the increased crowding, fast transportation, and a sudden drought or food shortage and we could be looking at a global pandemic the likes of which has been impossible until now.

We have some serious issues to deal with. Growing incidents of asthma, autism spectrum disorders, opening new territories around the world with new diseases that we may not even know about yet, let alone have any innate immunity to and we are looking at potential catastrophe. I am glad organizations like WHO and CDC are looking at these issues.

Well, that's not true. There are drugs to treat TB and they are usually given in drug cocktails (meaning more than one drug regimen at a time). TB has not been erradicated, so therefore, it is very profitable to drug companies. TB just isn't easily treated because it mutates so often.

la1 is right. I work in TB control. There are fewer than a handful of new drugs in the pipeline in phase 1, and all the major drugs are off-patent and have been around for decades. The only exceptions are replacement antibiotics which are not targeted at TB like Kanamycin. Cycloserine and capreomycin, the two biggies used to treat MDR-TB, are from the 50s and 60s. Pharma is not interested in investing in TB drug research, as the market is difficult to read and project for the next quarter, as much of it is dominated by multilateral institutions like GFATM and national governments, which are notoriously inefficient and sporadic.

Unless there is major action soon to subsidize the research of new drugs and/or be SERIOUS about treating the disease correctly, it'll soon be a major problem in the US and Europe as well. There have been MDR outbreaks in the US in the past, and we spend billions to control it, and for good reason.

The pharmaceutical companies are too important to be allowed to be run by individuals who operate on profit.

CarterFrancis: I think billions have been spent on gated communities....after the majority of the rest of the population succumbs to disease, then they can come out of their communities and get even richer for even cheaper.

You are right on Target, ddobbins

overprescribing of antibiotics

This is not a new issue. We had problems with drug resistant TB in Southern California 5 or 6 years ago, due to immigration from countries that have this particular strain of TB. Many other countries including China treat everything with antibiotics including IV a person with antibiotics for 5 days suffering from a bad cough instead of using an opioid to reduce the reflex. After she left the hospital still with this cough, I gave her some cough medicine with codeine and it stopped within an hour.

In many countries, Antibiotics are seen as the next best thing to God.