Toronto just absorbed 150 HIV/AIDS positive refugee claimants after the recent AIDSAPALOOZA... most of them reportedly from South Africa. I'm guessing that once this news reaches SA, we'll be the number one travel destination for any infected individuals with an ounce of hope/initiative.
Today we learn that there is highly evolved type of tuberculosis rampaging through this region.
An extremely deadly strain of Tuberculosis has appeared in South Africa, killing 52 of 53 people diagnosed with it so far. It is called XDR-TB (Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis). Officials say it started in rural areas of the Kwazulu-Natal region of the country among miners, and has probably found its way into urban areas.South Africa, predictably, has its head up its ass yet again.
Public health officials in South Africa insist there is no outbreak.For anyone who's interested, that makes this strain of TB at least as deadly as ebola virus. Garlic and beetroot ain't gonna make a dent in this baby.
The WHO is attempting to get the word out.
Dr. Paul Nunn of the World Health Organization is attending the Johannesburg meeting.
“It is extreme drug resistant to the point where we’re talking about untreatable TB. So, the World Health Organization is particularly concerned that if these strains spread then we are going to be jerked back into the pre anti-biotic era, when in fact we do not have the drugs to treat patients. That is the potential of this epidemic,” he says.
Technorati Tags: South Africa, pandemic, XDR-TB
