“First Case of Fearsome TB Strain Found in US” reports:
“It started with a cough, an autumn hack that refused to go away.
“Then came the fevers. They bathed and chilled the skinny frame of Oswaldo Juarez, a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting to study English. His lungs clattered, his chest tightened and he ached with every gasp. During a wheezing fit at 4 a.m., Juarez felt a warm knot rise from his throat. He ran to the bathroom sink and spewed a mouthful of blood….
“Doctors say Juarez’s incessant hack was a sign of what they have both dreaded and expected… ‘He is really the future,’ [Dr. David] Ashkin said. ‘This is the new class that people are not really talking too much about. These are the ones we really fear because I’m not sure how we treat them’…
“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.”
WATCHDOG: This is a very well researched, well written, informative article. Two wags of the tail for outstanding journalism!
