"HEALTH officials are paid to feel apprehensive. For some years they have feared that tuberculosis (TB), an ancient scourge tamed by modern drugs, might evolve into a new, indestructible state. New strains of mycobacterium tuberculosis have already emerged, some resistant to isoniazid and rifampicin, two of the best known treatments, and some resistant to additional injected drugs. The advent of completely resistant TB seemed inevitable. Now it may have arrived."
Does this mean we can go back to calling it consumption?
@Mr. B I'm going to go watch Val Kilmer's clammy-sexy portrayal of consumptive Doc Hollidayand think on that. I must have watched Tombstone at a formative time, because it is actually the only thought I ever have when someone mentions TB.
@MParcells I'm a Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge man myself.
John Keats, hello?!
@MParcells: I'm your huckleberry.
@Mr. B Si, mi chiamano Mimi.
@Mr. B Geez, and we'll have to go back to "moving to Arizona" as the treatment for it.
@SeanP Following in the Nixons' footsteps.
This is why I don't travel. Well, this, and because I can't afford it. But mostly this.
My dad had non-contagious spinal TB as a child. Still, because of the social opprobrium attached to the disease, he grew up under house arrest and the neighbors were told he had a heart problem.
"To the same ol' place that you laughed about..."
@Dave Bry
4th Deadliest Communicable Disease in America
Health reporters are paid to stoke mass panic on an uninformed readership. For some years they have hoped and prayed that Tuberculosis...might once again provide fodder for some primo column inches. They secretly wished that it was inevitable. And now: JACKPOT!
@DMcK The only surefire cure for super-tuberculosis? Critical thinking skills.