Quarantined TB patient's likely treatment & relevance to our situation

[Guest guest]

Are you all hearing about this highly resistant TB case on the news? Turns out the patient's father-in-law is a microbiologist with the CDC who just happens to work on these highly resistant bugs. And now I've just heard them explain the treatment needed in cases of resistant organisms like this. They announced it will likely involve surgery. This really makes me wonder if his docs aren't a little bit more conscientious about treatment than the average joe would get (and I also just heard that he switched hospitals, hmmmm), because this is EXACTLY what I'm harping on about here all the time. Basically, the doctor said that surgery will probably be required (as those of us with dx'd OM know) as the drugs alone just can't kill the bugs. The only way to get them is to remove the parts of the body where they're concentrated (because the drugs can't penetrate). Apparently 20% of these TB bugs are now abx resistant, and over 2 million people per year are dying of TB. And quite a few people are latent carriers. The solution they suggest to fight the problem? Early testing to identify the infection and aggressive treatment before it becomes drug resistant. I hope they keep reporting this way. Maybe people will finally start figuring out that we need this kind of testing and treatment too. It's mind boggling to me that medicine just doesn't seem to see the relevance of this in relation to chronic infections. Especially as it was reported that the man knew he had TB and chose to fly against his doctor's recommendation (due to virulency), indicating he's had it for a while yet still thought he was well enough to be jet-setting all over the world. penny