Virulent Strain of Tuberculosis
According to the Washington Post, a virulent strain of bacillus tuberculosis which is resistant to most available antibiotics is appearing around the world. This has started to raise fears of a pandemic that could devastate efforts to contain the tuberculosis and prove deadly to people with immune-deficiency diseases such as HIV-AIDS or the immuno-compromised.
The strain known formally as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis or XDR- tuberculosis has been detected in 37 different countries.
It arises when the bacillus bacterium that causes tuberculosis mutates because antibiotics used to destroy it are carelessly administered at a lower level by poorly trained doctors or patients don’t complete their full course of medication. Therefore, rather than being killed by the drugs, the microbe mutates and builds up resistance.
This strain has a high mortality rate and at least 50 percent of those who contract this strain of tuberculosis will die of it.
In the United States, 13,767 tuberculosis cases were recorded in 2006, the lowest rate of infection since reporting began in 1953. A retrospective analysis by the CDC found 49 cases of the new strain in the country since 1993.
