tuberculosis

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

TB Scare Hits Virginia School
 TB Scare Hits Virginia School 

TB Scare Hits Virginia School

Hundreds tested after three diagnosed

(Newser) - Health officials are asking roughly 430 students and teachers at a Virginia high school to undergo tuberculosis testing, fearing that they may have been exposed to the disease in the wake of three confirmed diagnoses. The first diagnosis came back in December, but officials really got worried this month, when...

Possible TB Fix: Orange Juice and Advil?

New study suggests they might be effective treatments

(Newser) - Scientists may have discovered two new treatments for tuberculosis, and you probably have both of them in your home already. Two recent studies suggest that vitamin C and ibuprofen could be effective against TB, LiveScience reports. In one study, ibuprofen helped TB-infected mice live longer, slowing the formation of lesions...

TB Patient at Border Traveled Through 13 Countries

Strain he has is especially dangerous and resistant to most drugs

(Newser) - The Wall Street Journal has a scary story that illustrates just how easy it is for even one person to spread a lethal, drug-resistant disease. US border authorities in South Texas have detained a man trying to sneak across from Mexico who has a rare strain of TB. That's...

US Woefully Unprepared for New Tuberculosis Epidemic

Multidrug-resistant TB on the rise, and US is at risk: experts

(Newser) - Though multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was basically conquered in the US in the 1990s, it's now at epidemic levels in other parts of the world—and the US is not prepared, reports the Wall Street Journal in an extensive look at the disease. As TB strains get more drug-resistant abroad—a...

War on TB Has Backfired: Experts

WHO slow to tackle drug-resistant TB

(Newser) - For years, the World Health Organization has pushed countries to battle tuberculosis by treating those patients who could be most easily cured. The strategy has a major flaw: It's allowed drug-resistant forms of the disease to flourish, experts say. Now the WHO is reworking its strategy—but much damage...

Tuberculosis Soon to Be &#39;Virtually Untreatable&#39;?
Tuberculosis Soon to Be 'Virtually Untreatable'?
study says

Tuberculosis Soon to Be 'Virtually Untreatable'?

New study finds alarming rates of drug-resistant TB

(Newser) - Drug-resistant tuberculosis is on the rise, and a new study suggests that the lung disease may soon become "virtually untreatable." Multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is resistant to at least two first-line drugs, and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is also resistant to two more types of drugs. In Africa,...

Florida Kept Lid on Worst TB Outbreak in Decades

Strain linked to 13 deaths and 99 cases: Palm Beach Post

(Newser) - Florida is in the midst of the worst tuberculosis outbreak the CDC has seen in two decades—and the Jacksonville outbreak was largely hidden from the public, finds the Palm Beach Post in a disturbing report. The outbreak apparently originated in 2008, when a schizophrenic patient came down with TB...

25 California Babies May Have Been Exposed to TB

Infected person visited 2 neonatal intensive care wards

(Newser) - The parents of 25 babies in northern California have been warned that their children may have been exposed to tuberculosis in their first days of life. A person with active tuberculosis visited neonatal intensive care wards in two hospitals in Sacramento and Sutter County in March and April of this...

TB Patient Jailed for Refusing Medication

California meth user was risking public health

(Newser) - A tuberculosis patient in California who refused to take medication to stop his condition from becoming contagious has been locked up to protect the public. Armando Rodriguez, 34, missed eight out of nine doses in the space of 47 days. He told health officials who visited his home that he...

Deadly TB Coursing Through Europe

Thousands will die unless authorities step in: WHO

(Newser) - Ominous news from WHO: Incredibly drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis are coursing through Europe, and will kill tens of thousands unless health officials intervene. WHO's regional director blamed the resurgence on complacency, noted that the disease "is evolving with a vengeance," and announced the creation of a plan...

WHO Sounds Alarm on Homeopathy

(Newser) - The World Health Organization has issued a warning against homeopathic treatments for TB and other life-threatening illnesses, reports the BBC. The organization issued the alert after pressure from a group of young researchers who complained that homeopathy was being promoted in poor countries as a treatment for TB, infant diarrhea,...

Bruni to G8: Don't Let Recession Kill AIDS Funding

We've made progress—now don't let economy destroy it

(Newser) - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gets in the op-ed game today, urging G8 leaders who are converging on L’Aquila, Italy, to continue the commitment their predecessors made 8 years ago to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. The earlier initiative helped the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria save some 4 million...

Scientists Urge WHO to Slam Homeopathy as HIV Remedy

Brits want such treatment ruled out for HIV, TB, malaria

(Newser) - Concerned about deaths tied to choice of treatment, British scientists are calling on the World Health Organization to speak out against homeopathy as a way to battle HIV, TB, malaria, influenza, and infant diarrhea. Clinics throughout Asia and sub-Saharan Africa offer to treat such diseases through homeopathy, though there is...

S. Africa Will Test New TB Vaccine

Current shot in use since 1921

(Newser) - A study starting next month will test a new vaccine's ability to prevent tuberculosis, Bloomberg reports. Researchers will give 2800 South African babies the new shot. The current vaccine has been around since 1921 and doesn’t keep infants from getting TB of the lungs, where the bacteria first sets...

Not Scared of TB? You Should Be

Resistant strain could ravage the world, and we're not ready

(Newser) - "Global complacency" could give rise to a terrifying, drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times—and not in some remote outpost on the globe. There have been fewer than 100 cases of this XDR-TB in the past 15 years in the US, but with...

Man's New Best Friend: Rats Ferret Out Land Mines, TB

(Newser) - Move over, Rover: Man has a new best friend that is helping to combat two scourges plaguing the developing world. Rats, normally reviled as filthy vermin, are sniffing out land mines and detecting tuberculosis bacteria. "Rats are usually considered pests or enemies of humanity,” said one Mozambican handler,...

TB Scare Unsettles Calif. Maternity Ward

Nearly 1K babies may have been exposed to worker with active case

(Newser) - Nearly 1,000 babies born since March at a San Francisco hospital could have been exposed to tuberculosis, the Chronicle reports, by a maternity-ward worker with an active case. Kaiser Permanente says infection risk is very low, but testing and any treatment needed will be provided to 960 infants and...

For TB Clues, Researchers Turn to Bones

Key to disease's evolution may lie in 6,000-year-old DNA

(Newser) - Scientists are analyzing bones found in the ancient city of Jericho, in what's now the West Bank, for clues to fighting tuberculosis. The German, Israeli, and Palestinian researchers hope the 6,000-year-old DNA they're studying will reveal how the disease evolves and how to combat it.

Super-TB Cases Hit Record High
Super-TB Cases Hit Record High

Super-TB Cases Hit Record High

WHO calls for urgent action

(Newser) - Drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are at the highest levels disease experts have ever seen, warns the World Health Organization. A survey of 81 countries found that levels of multi-drug resistant TB and even hardier, almost untreatable TB were much higher than expected, reports the BBC. Urgent action is needed to...

Fight Disease, Not Just AIDS
Fight Disease, Not Just AIDS
OPINION

Fight Disease, Not Just AIDS

Public health expert urges perspective in global efforts

(Newser) - Global action to fight HIV/AIDS is imperative, but wealthy countries should reconsider committing most of their assistance to just one disease, Harvard expert Daniel Halperin writes in today's New York Times. Cheaply preventable illnesses like diarrhea claim many more lives in the poorest African countries than HIV yet receive scant...

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>