

Supercharged Tuberculosis, Made in India - kungfudoi
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/supercharged-tuberculosis-made-in-india1/

======
gnufied
While it looks grim, I think wheels are in motion. This article by World Bank
- [http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/05/09/india-
ba...](http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/05/09/india-battling-tb-
in-indias-slums) puts things more in perspective.

Bottom line:

1\. Government has increased spending on Tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment.

2\. Organizations like Gates foundation ([http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-
We-Do/Global-Health/Tube...](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-
Health/Tuberculosis)) are doing good job in getting things in motion.

3\. NGO's like Operation
Asha([http://www.opasha.org/](http://www.opasha.org/)) are doing tremendous
job ensuring patients take their medication properly.

A big part of the problem seems to be diagnosis and proper treatment before
the disease becomes drug resistant. This quote from linked article:

>All too often, patients are misdiagnosed and wrongly treated by private
providers who then dump them, broke and drug-resistant, onto the public health
system.

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singularskptk
Really puts the singularity hype into perspective. For years I've been hearing
from them about radical medical advances just around the corner, and here we
see that on this front, rather than making exponential progress, or even just
progress period, medical "science" is actually losing rather than gaining
ground.

~~~
matthewmacleod
I don't think your view quite reflects reality.

\- We have made and will continue to make massive medical advances. Look at
things like cancer survival rates, for example. \- Drug-resistant TB is
actually treatable, and the reason for its existence in the first place is
poor treatment practices that encourage the development of resistance. If this
is a failure of anything, it's healthcare protocol rather than science.

~~~
melling
I looked at the cancer survival rates. Over 30 years this looks like slow
progress to me:

[http://healthhubs.net/images/cancer-survival-
trends.gif](http://healthhubs.net/images/cancer-survival-trends.gif)

------
louithethrid
What i never actually got- why do we have to wait for this to happen in the
wild ? What prevents us from cultivating connected tissuesamples, and breed
the superbugs of the next generation in the lab, so that countermeasures are
available when it happens?

I know that mutations (virus) and recombinations (exchange of dna between
bacteria) are unpreditable - but most of them would remain local - only those
infectious enough to be transfered are of interest, in the wild as in the lab.

~~~
LoSboccacc
Random mutations that give resistance may evolve differently even under the
same evolutionary pressure.

You'd effectively get two independent strains which might or might not be
sensible to the se drugs

------
arjn
Part of the problem is how easily antibiotics are available over the counter
in India. No prescription required.

A large number of people self-prescribe or take the advice of non-medical
people when looking for a cure.

I've seen folk take some pretty serious stuff (Tetracycline, Streptomycin
etc.) on advice from the sales-staff at their local pharmacy.

The government has done little or nothing to stop this behaviour.

