{"id":9090,"date":"2012-03-19T15:21:41","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T13:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/feature-drug-resistant-white-plague-lurks-among-rich-and-poor\/"},"modified":"2012-03-19T15:21:41","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T13:21:41","slug":"feature-drug-resistant-white-plague-lurks-among-rich-and-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/feature-drug-resistant-white-plague-lurks-among-rich-and-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE-Drug-resistant "white plague" lurks among rich and poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters)- On New Year’s Eve 2004, after
\nmonths of losing weight and suffering fevers, night sweats and
\nshortness of breath, student Anna Watterson was taken into
\nhospital coughing up blood.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It was strange to be diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB)- an
\nancient disease associated with poverty – especially since
\nWatterson was a well-off trainee lawyer living in the affluent
\nBritish capital of London. Yet it was also a relief, she says,
\nfinally to know what had been making her ill for so long.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But when Watterson’s infection refused to yield to the
\nthree-pronged antibiotic attack doctors prescribed to fight it,
\nher relief turned to dread.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

After six weeks of taking pills that had no effect,
\nWatterson was told she had multi-drug resistant TB, or MDR-TB,
\nand faced months in an isolation ward on a regimen of injected
\ndrugs that left her nauseous, bruised and unable to go out in
\nthe sun.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“My friends were really shocked,” Watterson said. “Most of
\nthem had only heard of TB from reading Victorian novels.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuberculosis is often seen in the wealthy West as a disease
\nof bygone eras – evoking impoverished 18th or 19th century women
\nand children dying slowly of a disease then commonly known as
\n“consumption” or the “white plague”.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But rapidly rising rates of drug-resistant TB in some of the
\nwealthiest cities in the world, as well as across Africa and
\nAsia, are again making history.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

London has been dubbed the “tuberculosis capital of Europe”,
\nand a startling recent study documenting new cases of so-called
\n“totally drug resistant” TB in India suggests the modern-day
\ntale of this disease could get a lot worse.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON, March 19 (Reuters)- On New Year’s Eve 2004, after months of losing weight and suffering fevers, night sweats and shortness of breath, student Anna Watterson was taken into hospital coughing up blood. It was strange to be diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB)- an ancient disease associated with poverty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9090","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}