MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“(CBS/AP) Totally drug-resistant tuberculosis? That’s what doctors are calling the long-feared and virtually untreatable form of the killer lung disease that’s striking people in India.

It’s not the first time highly resistant cases like this have been seen. Since 2003, patients have been documented in Italy and Iran. It has mostly been limited to impoverished areas, and has not spread widely. But experts believe there could be many undocumented cases.

The airborne disease is mainly transmitted through close personal contact and isn’t nearly as contagious as the flu. Most cases of this ‘drug-resistant’ TB have not been from person-to-person infection but mutations that have occurred in poorly treated patients. No one expects the Indian TB strains to rapidly spread elsewhere.

Is this particular disease actually drug-resistant? There is still debate within the public health community – the World Health Organization hasn’t accepted the term, calling the cases ‘extensively drug-resistant TB,’ or XDR. But Dr. Paul Nunn, a coordinator at the WHO’s Stop TB Department in Geneva, said there is ample proof that these virtually untreatable cases do exist.

‘It is concerning,’ said Dr. Kenneth Castro, director of the CDC’s Division of Tuberculosis Elimination. ‘Anytime we see something like this, we better get on top of it before it becomes a more widespread problem.'” Read more.

India: New, Deadlier Form of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Strikes Mumbai and Ratnagiri – “The TB menace in India is likely to grow worse with the new, deadlier form of virus detected in Mumbai. 12 tuberculosis patients at Hinduja Hospital in Mahim, Mumbai have been found to have a virus which has been termed Totally Drug Resistant (TDR) – TB. The viruses were isolated in the fluid samples of the patients. This virus has the latest and most severe form of drug resistance in TB viruses after the Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR-TB), and Extremely Drug-Resistant (EDR-TB) varieties diagnosed a while back.” Read more.