Word: tb
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...public health services, the incidence of tuberculosis has jumped 25% since 1984, when 22,000 cases were documented in the U.S. Physicians from the American Lung Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommend a series of more aggressive countermeasures to prevent a general outbreak of TB, some new strains of which are particularly virulent...
...bacteria develop enzymes capable of destroying the antibiotics and even molecular pumps that expel the drugs from the cell. The most recent example of bacterial resourcefulness came to light only two weeks ago. By deleting a single gene, an English-French research team announced, certain strains of the TB germ have protected themselves from isoniazid, currently the major weapon against this resurgent disease...
...practice of dosing farm animals with large quantities of antibiotics could be curtailed. Hospitals could do a better job of using late-model antibiotics more sparingly, thereby preserving their effectiveness. Public health departments in major cities could return to the old practice of strictly monitoring the drug therapy of TB patients who haven't been following their regimens carefully. Fortunately, resistant strains of this highly contagious disease can still be killed with a combination of antibiotics -- if they are taken on schedule for a sustained period of time...
...modern medicine's disheartening setbacks has been the emergence of TB strains that are resistant to standard medication. In last week's Nature, researchers from Hammersmith Hospital in London and from the Pasteur Institute in Paris report they have uncovered the genetic reason behind this dangerous trend. They have discovered that common forms of the TB bacterium bear a gene that makes it susceptible to the antibiotic isoniazid -- a gene that is missing in drug-resistant strains. The finding could lead to improved diagnostic tests that will help doctors treat people with drug-resistant TB before they can pass...
Since the bacteria that cause TB spread through the air, they threaten not only AIDS patients but healthy people as well. Those with an intact immune system can usually fight off the infection, but this does not hold true for people who harbor HIV. Until the resurgence of TB, medical personnel who were HIV-positive but still healthy could work on AIDS floors without jeopardizing their own or anyone else's well-being. Now they will face a greater risk of encountering and developing TB. More AIDS patients are thus likely to be treated under quarantine conditions to avoid spreading...