Tuberculosis news stories on Newser

Totally Drug-Resistant TB Discovered

Mark Russell — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:45:00 CST

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 doctors said...

Philippines: Geckos Won't Cure AIDS

Tim Karan — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:32:05 CDT

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 illegal trade of the...

Feds Seek Passengers on TB Jet

Peter Fearon — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:43:39 CST

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

Colleen Barry — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:37:59 CDT

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

Greg Atwan — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:21:55 CDT

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

J. Kelman — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:42:03 CDT

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

Dustin Lushing — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:22:42 CDT

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," U2...

'Outbreak' Morphs Into 'Rashomon'

Jonas Oransky — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:13:48 CDT

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

M. Morris — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:04:06 CDT

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...