Snowy Owl
Retired in 2010, In Memoriam
Soros donates $3 million to fight TB
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/1500AP_Tuberculosis_Soros.html
LONDON
Billionaire George Soros pledged $3 million Wednesday to fight a deadly strain of tuberculosis in Africa.
XDR-TB exists worldwide, but it is of particular concern in Africa, where patients are often co-infected with HIV/AIDS, which essentially translates into a death sentence.
XDR-TB is a variant of TB, an easily transmissible disease that is resistant to two of the second-line TB drugs, used as a last line of defense.
No XDR-TB cases have been found in neighbouring countries like Lesotho, Malawi or Zimbabwe, but experts suspect weak surveillance systems there are simply not picking them up. The disease has been identified in 28 countries worldwide, including all G8 countries.
The delayed response to XDR-TB, Harrington said, does not match the severity of the outbreak.
"People think of TB as an old disease, and it's largely been ignored," he said. "But if they really understood how serious XDR-TB was, they would be scared out of their wits."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/1500AP_Tuberculosis_Soros.html
LONDON
Billionaire George Soros pledged $3 million Wednesday to fight a deadly strain of tuberculosis in Africa.
XDR-TB exists worldwide, but it is of particular concern in Africa, where patients are often co-infected with HIV/AIDS, which essentially translates into a death sentence.
XDR-TB is a variant of TB, an easily transmissible disease that is resistant to two of the second-line TB drugs, used as a last line of defense.
No XDR-TB cases have been found in neighbouring countries like Lesotho, Malawi or Zimbabwe, but experts suspect weak surveillance systems there are simply not picking them up. The disease has been identified in 28 countries worldwide, including all G8 countries.
The delayed response to XDR-TB, Harrington said, does not match the severity of the outbreak.
"People think of TB as an old disease, and it's largely been ignored," he said. "But if they really understood how serious XDR-TB was, they would be scared out of their wits."
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