First case of highly drug-resistant TB found in US

By MARGIE MASON AND MARTHA MENDOZA
The Associated Press
Sunday, December 27, 2009

Excerpt:
Today, all the leading killer infectious diseases on the planet - TB, malaria and HIV among them - are mutating at an alarming rate, hitchhiking their way in and out of countries. The reason: Overuse and misuse of the very drugs that were supposed to save us.

Just as the drugs were a manmade solution to dangerous illness, the problem with them is also manmade. It is fueled worldwide by everything from counterfeit drugmakers to the unintended consequences of giving drugs to the poor without properly monitoring their treatment. Here's what the AP found:

- In Cambodia, scientists have confirmed the emergence of a new drug-resistant form of malaria, threatening the only treatment left to fight a disease that already kills 1 million people a year.

- In Africa, new and harder to treat strains of HIV are being detected in about 5 percent of new patients. HIV drug resistance rates have shot up to as high as 30 percent worldwide. the rest


The Perils of Paganism: Woman from NH being treated for anthrax
A Strafford County woman with gastrointestinal anthrax is in critical condition in an out-of-state hospital.

State health officials say the infection may have been caused by naturally occurring spores carried in African instruments used at a monthly drum circle at United Campus Ministry at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. the rest