Timebomb - Softcover

Reichman, Lee; Hopkins Tanne, Janice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071422501 ISBN 13: 9780071422505

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education, 2004

Synopsis

"A chilling account of...the global resurgence of this disease..." - "The New York Times". "Tuberculosis - a nineteenth century disease - has come back with a vengeance..."Timebomb" is the extraordinary story of courage and cowardice in confronting the global TB epidemic." - Donna E. Shalala, former Secretary of Health and Human Services, President of the University of Miami.

About this title

Review:

"Tuberculosis--a nineteenth century disease--has come back with a vengeance. ... Timebomb is the extraordinary story of courage and cowardice in confronting the global TB epidemic."

From the Author:

TB’S DANGEROUS SECRETS

Of the world’s six billion people, two billion are infected with latent TB, including 15 million in the United States.

There are 8.4 million new cases of active, usually infectious TB every year, and the number is growing.

TB kills 2 million people every year. More people will die of TB this year than any year in history.

Every TB death is unnecessary. TB is preventable and curable. When treated with appropriate antibiotics, even patients with drug-resistant TB can usually be cured.

TB is an airborne disease that usually affects the lungs. You get it by breathing. TB has already been spread on long air flights.

46% of US infections are foreign-borne.

TB is the leading infectious disease killer of adults, usually in their most productive years between 15 and 54.

TB kills more women than any cause related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Each person with TB infects up to 20 others before he or she is treated or dies.

The World Health Organization declared TB a global health emergency in 1993, the only time it has ever made such a declaration for any disease.

TB and AIDS are deadly twins. TB promotes progression of AIDS and AIDS promotes progression of TB. TB is the leading cause of death in people with AIDS.

A long but effective treatment regimen, endorsed by the World Health Organization, is used in 128 countries, but only 23% of TB patients actually get this treatment.

Bad treatment of TB leads to multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), which if not fatal, requires up to 2 years of very expensive treatment with often toxic drugs. Multi-drug resistant TB has already been found in 43 states and the District of Columbia.

Russia has the world’s worst multi-drug-resistant TB problem, focused in its over crowded prisons. Almost every prisoner is infected with TB and 100,000 have active, usually infectious TB. When released (often with no follow-up) they infect families and communities.

Russia continues to reject the global standard treatment for TB and relies on its 50-year old methods.

Multi-drug-resistant TB has already spread from Russia to the West.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0071422501
• ISBN 13: 9780071422505
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320