International Law

Attack of the Nasty TB

By Stan

I wish this was a surprise, but it isn’t:

Levels of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in China are nearly twice the global average. Nationwide research published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases has shown that almost 10% of Chinese TB cases are resistant to the most effective first-line drugs.

New study came out on this, which is why this is in the news. The rest of the article is boring, until you get to the conclusion:

The authors said, "Many possible explanations for the development of drug resistance in China exist, and different explanations may prevail in different areas of this vast country. These include the inadequate use of anti-TB drugs in public hospitals, lack of supervision of treatment, poor drug-management and absence of infection control measures in hospitals. Also, availability of anti-TB drugs without a prescription in some areas of China in the past may have contributed to the development of drug resistance."

I’m not entirely sure what all that is referring to, but my vote for #1 culprit would be rampant overuse of antibiotics, often self-medicated. Just to let you know how bad it is over here, if you walk down the street in the winter and sneeze, you only have to wait about seven or eight seconds (this is documented, you know) before some schmuck in a white coat will run up to you with a long needle and an IV bag full of antibiotics.

Resistance? That’s for the other people to worry about. I (or my family) am dealing with germs right now, and they must be killed immediately.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).