TB (Tuberculosis) Returns

While browsing the internet today I came across a story about Tuberculosis (TB), a disease that was supposedly wiped out over four decades ago.

Associated Press reports that the first case of this dreaded disease has been reported in Lantana, Florida and a young man, 19 years of age from Peru is afflicted with it. It appears that the strain that this young man has contracted is drug-resistant and he has been sent to what Associated Press says is the last-standing TB sanitarium where he is to be quarantined for the next two years.

Since TB is spread through the air when an infected person sneezes, coughs, speaks or spits it puts multitudes of people at risk. Symptoms of TB include a chronic cough

with blood in the sputum, fevers, weight loss, night sweats, chest pain and fatigue. While TB can attack other parts of the body it is generally found in the lungs.

The diagnosis of TB which was at one time call "consumption" is done through chest x-rays, a skin test (you know the one where they poke you with the four little dots and tell you to watch it to see if it gets bumpy); they can also diagnosis TB through microscopic exam of body fluids.

Treatment has traditionally been a six to nine month course of antibiotics but with new drug-resistant strains it is difficult to say how long it will take to cure someone or if they can cure them.