Tuberculosis

13 Stories

New Treatment for Deadliest Strain of Tuberculosis Is Massively Successful

FDA approves new 3-drug regimen

(Newser) - Good news for those with the deadliest strain of tuberculosis: It no longer has to mean a death sentence. Scientists have discovered a cure for extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, and on Wednesday, the FDA "effectively endorsed" it, the New York Times reports. Just a small percentage of people...

Hospital Worker Exposed 700 Babies to TB

Texas woman was undiagnosed for nearly a year

(Newser) - A Texas woman with undiagnosed tuberculosis worked at a nursery in an El Paso hospital for nearly a year before she was diagnosed, potentially exposing 706 babies and 43 co-workers to the disease, reports Reuters . Calling TB "serious but treatable," El Paso's Department of Public Health is...

Totally Drug-Resistant TB Discovered

India reports 12 cases of most deadly strain yet of bacteria

(Newser) - As if "extensively" drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis were not scary enough, Indian doctors have discovered "totally" drug-resistant TB, reports AP . Twelve patients have been discovered who did not respond to initial treatment or two subsequent medicines tried over the next two or three years. Three have died, and...

Philippines: Geckos Won't Cure AIDS

Health officials suggest trying actual medicine

(Newser) - Put down that gecko: The Philippine health department is warning citizens that using geckos to treat AIDS, asthma, and tuberculosis doesn't work and endangers those who don't seek proper treatment. There's no scientific evidence to the folklore behind the practice, and it's caused an increase in...

Feds Seek Passengers on TB Jet
Feds Seek Passengers on TB Jet
Dec 31, 2007 4:43 AM CST

Feds Seek Passengers on TB Jet

They may have been exposed to drug resistant tuberculosis

(Newser) - Federal health officials are searching for passengers and crew who may have been exposed to a rare and potentially deadly form of drug resistant tuberculosis on an American Airlines flight from India. A 30-year-old Nepalese woman, diagnosed with the disease, flew from New Delhi to San Francisco via Chicago on...

Fellow Airline Passengers Sue TB Lawyer

They're just after my money, says newlywed

(Newser) - Nine airline passengers are suing the Atlanta lawyer infected with a rare TB strain who flew to Europe for his wedding despite CDC warnings not to travel. The $1.3 million suit filed in Montreal claims Andrew Speaker recklessly exposed them to a deadly disease. The passengers, seven Canadians and...

Doctors Give TB Fugitive Good News
Doctors Give
TB Fugitive Good News
Jul 3, 2007 5:21 PM CDT

Doctors Give TB Fugitive Good News

Runaway lawyer's disease less dangerous than initially thought

(Newser) - TB patient Andrew Speaker is not quite as sick as planeloads of people feared, Reuters reports. A doctor from Speaker's Denver hospital says the Atlanta lawyer, who flew to Europe despite warnings that he was highly contagious, doesn't have XDR—or extensively drug-resistant—tuberculosis, but rather the more treatable multi-drug-resistant...

TB Patient Preps for Surgery
TB Patient Preps for Surgery
Jun 15, 2007 3:42 PM CDT

TB Patient Preps for Surgery

Docs will remove tubercular portion of Andrew Speaker's lung; could clear the disease

(Newser) - The TB traveler will go under the knife to remove a tennis-ball sized area of infected lung tissue, his doctors said today. Andrew Speaker, who triggered an international health crisis last month when he took a transatlantic flight while infected with an extremely drug-resistant strain of TB, will undergo surgery...

G8 Concludes with AIDS Pledge
G8 Concludes with AIDS Pledge
Jun 8, 2007 3:22 PM CDT

G8 Concludes with AIDS Pledge

World leaders renew $60B pledge to fight disease in Africa

(Newser) - Global leaders renewed their vow to spend $60 billion to help fight AIDS, TB, and malaria in Africa today as the G8 summit wrapped up. But they set no deadlines for delivering the relief, leading critics to question the pledge. "I think it is deliberately the language of obfuscation,...

'Outbreak' Morphs Into 'Rashomon'
'Outbreak' Morphs Into 'Rashomon'
Jun 2, 2007 12:13 PM CDT

'Outbreak' Morphs Into 'Rashomon'

Finger-pointing over TB patient's travels spreads across two continents

(Newser) - The Atlanta lawyer whose honeymoon baggage included a dangerous strain of TB is at the center of a contentious international public-health dispute. The Times reports on the conflicting accounts of warnings issued to Andrew Speaker and the governments of the countries he visited. Meanwhile, other American passengers on his flights...

TB Patient, Family Ties Revealed
TB Patient, Family Ties Revealed
May 31, 2007 4:04 PM CDT

TB Patient, Family Ties Revealed

Atlanta lawyer's father-in-law is a CDC researcher

(Newser) - The quarantined tuberculosis patient is an Atlanta lawyer who recently married the daughter of a CDC TB researcher, CNN reports. Andrew Speaker, 31, took a private plane to Denver today to be treated for extremely drug-resistant TB, or XDR TB. Microbiologist Robert Cooksey says he knew of his son-in-law's infection...

Drug-Resistant TB Patient Flies Commercial

Carrier crossed Atlantic twice, putting passengers at risk

(Newser) - A man infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis boarded two transatlantic flights in two weeks, CNN reports, putting his fellow passengers at risk. Planes are equipped with air filters that should catch the rod-shaped TB bacili, but the CDC recommends anyone on Air France 385, from Atlanta to Paris May 12, or...

TB Patient Spends Nine Months In Lockdown

ACLU questions forcible quarantine of man with drug-resistent TB

(Newser) - A tuberculosis patient has been in forced quarantine in an Arizona hospital's jail ward for nine months for failing to wear a face mask and take his medication. Robert Daniels committed no crime, but neither did he follow doctor's orders to avoid transmission of his drug-resistant TB. 

13 Stories
Most Read on Newser