A new, untreatable form of tuberculosis is striking up to 30,000 people a year, the World Health Organization said on Friday, and warned it could spark an "apocalyptic scenario" if unchecked.
The United Nations agency appealed for $2.15 billion to combat drug-resistant TB under a program which it said could save up to 134,000 lives over two years.
Extensively drug resistant TB, virtually immune to antibiotics, has been reported in 37 countries since emerging in 2006
Extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB), a form virtually immune to antibiotics, has been reported in 37 countries in all regions since emerging in 2006, according to the WHO.
The recent case of an American man with XDR-TB who traveled abroad triggered an international health scare, highlighting the potential risks of rapid spread.
XDR-TB cases are particularly difficult to treat, and a patient could infect other people for years, according to Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Stop TB Department.
#1
I read a piece about it spreading in a South African hospital. It was killing people including staff (about 10 from memory) in less than 3 weeks from diagnosis. Scary stuff.
#3
A lot of the breeding and spread of this disease is based on AIDS. It turns their bodies into antibiotics loaded petri dishes for TB. Without an immune system to inhibit the TB, it is just it versus the antibiotics, which do not adapt to new strains.
I suspect that TB is just the first opportunistic communicable disease to use AIDS patients as a test tube, too.
#4
Many antibiotics don't kill the bacteria and those that do (called bacteriacides) don't kill them all by a long shot.
Essentially, antibiotics tip the playing field to your immune systems advantage. So it can clear up the infection. If your immune system is screwed then antibiotics aren't going to do much good.
In the South African hospital, the staff were presumably healthy people and they succumed rapidly, which makes this form of TB a serious issue in developed countries.
Maybe Moose is right, and we have AIDS suffers to thank for this.
#7
BCG vaccine isn't as helpful to us as it is in the third world. It's nowhere near perfect, and unless the rate of TB infection in a given locale is near epidemic it doesn't much reduce the rate of infection.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2007 14:11 Comments ||
Top||
#8
What ban, OS? I had one just a few years ago (related to rescue squad duties).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/23/2007 15:30 Comments ||
Top||
June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe's dollar plummeted 67 percent on the black market this week, forcing some retailers and gasoline stations in the capital, Harare, to stop trading. The currency, officially pegged at 250 against the U.S. dollar, sold for as much as 300,000 a dollar on the streets, where most Zimbabweans exchange their foreign currency, money traders said. It has depreciated from 100,000 earlier this week and from 3,000 to the dollar on Jan. 20.
``Inflation and the exchange rate are running away and out of control,'' John Robertson, an independent economist, said in an interview today from Harare. ``We're on a slippery slope that must be coming to an end now.''
Inflation in Zimbabwe, the world's fastest-shrinking economy, accelerated to 4,530 percent in May...
Inflation in Zimbabwe, the world's fastest-shrinking economy, accelerated to 4,530 percent in May, according to NMBZ Holdings Ltd., a Zimbabwean bank. The nation's statistics agency hasn't released figures for May yet. Zimbabwe's central bank has printed money to pay debts, fueling inflation, and on April 26 devalued the nation's currency for exporters by 98 percent.
Fuel retailers in Harare have started refusing to accept local currency because they are unable to keep pace with its depreciation. ``The black market rate has plummeted in the last 10 days,'' said Stephen Forsythe, who owns the Emerald Hill fuel outlet in Harare's northern suburbs. ``At this rate, I can only afford enough foreign currency to buy half as much fuel every three days. You can't run a business like that, so unless I charge in foreign currency, I have to stay closed.''
Retail stores in the capital also began closing their doors yesterday. ``There are thousands of items on our shelves and the law says they all have to display a price,'' Josiah Membgwe, a manager at the Helensvale Supermarket in Harare, said in an interview. ``We spent the whole afternoon and most of the night re-pricing everything. If this carries on we'll spend more time pricing goods than we do selling them.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
All's not lost. You can still buy the currency on eBay.
#2
For all practical purposes it must be a 'barter economy' by now. If you have an item or service of real, current value (food - or in a more advanced environment, toilet paper) you can trade with others in similar circumstance. Otherwise you are out of luck.
(SomaliNet) A Zimbabwean judge on Friday threw out a bail bid by six Zimbabweans facing charges of plotting to overthrow veteran President Robert Mugabe saying they were fears they could flee, their lawyer said. "The judge said they not be granted bail because there is a danger that they might abscond," lawyer Charles Warara told AFP after the bail hearing held behind closed doors. "He also said the decision was arrived at to allow the police to make further investigations, since they said (Albert) Matapo has connections outside the country."
The six men, including retired army officer Matapo, have been accused of fomenting a push to topple Mugabe and, according to a copy of the charge sheet seen by journalists , replace him with Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa is seen as one of 83-year-old Mugabe's possible successors. The prosecution said Matapo conspired with his co-accused and recruited various members of the security forces in preparation for the alleged coup.
Matapo allegedly planned to incite soldiers to take over the government and later declare himself interim ruler before installing Mnangagwa as president. Samkange said his clients were not planning a coup when they were arrested during a meeting in the capital. He said the meeting was to discuss the formation of a new political party.
The judge had earlier agreed that the hearing be held behind closed doors after the prosecution had argued for a ban on press coverage in order "to protect certain names which have been mentioned in the case". Another defence lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, unsuccessfully argued that it was in the public interest to hold the case in an open court. "There are names which have been mentioned maliciously and perhaps with evil intent, names like Mnangagwa," Samkange said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Actually, the Z$5,000,000 they brought to pay bail was only worth Z$20 by the time the court convened then adjourned. My, how that inflation grows!
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
06/23/2007 11:05 Comments ||
Top||
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested five members of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) in Raiganj upazila of Sirajganj district early yesterday. The arrestees are ziaur Rahman, 23, son of late Banat Ali, Mofizuddin, 42, son of Sobder Ali, Abdul Jalil, 32, son of Foyez Uddin, Momtaz, 20, son of Monju, and Labu, 21, son of Abdul Kuddus. All the five hail from Sorail village of the upazila.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-12 raided an area of Jamtoli Bazar where the outlaws were holding a secret meeting at around 3:00am. The law enforcers arrested the outlaws and took them to the Rab camp for quizzing. Rab sources said the five were wanted in two murder cases.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Four students of Jahangirnagar University (JU) were yesterday injured as Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) cadres beat them up following filing of a case against some JCD cadres. The JCD cadres, led by Shohag and Istiaque, swooped on Samajtantrik Chhatra Front (SCF) university unit general secretary Shoumitra and member Anjan, and two general students, Taimur and Nafis, just after they had their lunch at Battola at around 2:00pm. Of the injured, Shoumitra and Anjan were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital while the rest given treatment at university medical centre.
The case was filed with Ashulia Police Station on Thursday accusing seven JCD cadres of beating up three SCF activists on June 17. The SCF activists came under attack as they demonstrated against meal charge hike. The accused JCD cadres are Nahid, Sharif, Linkon, Habib, Shohag and Istiaque
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Former state minister for communications Salahuddin Ahmed and ntv Managing Director Enayetur Rahman Bappi were sent to jail yesterday after they were produced before a Dhaka court on completion of their three-day remand in separate cases.
Meanwhile, former BNP lawmaker MAH Selim was shown arrested yesterday in the case filed with Gulshan Police Station for extorting Tk 2.20 crore from Al-Amin Construction Firm. Abu Naser, an executive of the firm, filed the case on June 20 accusing Selim and his brother Abdur Rob Dakua.
Sub-Inspector Faruq Hossain of Gulshan Police Station, also the investigation officer (IO) of the case, produced Salahuddin before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Dhaka. He in a forwarding prayed to the court to keep Salahuddin confined to jail as it may be needed to interrogate him further regarding the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
The CID is examining if any case could be filed against former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar for receiving Tk 20 crore from Bashundhara Group chairman in exchange for relieving his son of the Sabbir murder charge. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) started probing the murder of Bashundhara director Humayun Kabir Sabbir and Babar's receiving money soon after the case was transferred to it from the Detective Branch (DB) on June 12.
The DB had found Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan's son Safiat Sobhan Sanbeer, another Bashundhara Director Shamsuddin Ahmed and Sanbeer's close associate Khairul Hasan Ujjal involved in the murder. "Our investigation officer is now investigating the case and when the probe is over we will take the next course of action," CID chief Foni Bhushan Chowdhury told The Daily Star.
The joint forces have already recovered Babar's Tk 20 crore and deposited it with the Bangladesh Bank on May 25 after the former state minister admitted during interrogation to receiving the sum from the Bashundhara chairman for not implicating his son in the murder.
Babar admitted that Sobhan went to him and agreed to provide Tk 50 crore against his demand of Tk 100 crore in exchange for not implicating Sanbeer in the case after investigators detected Sanbeer's involvement in the killing. The detained former state minister for home also admitted that he received the bribe with the consent of the then premier Khaleda Zia and her eldest son Tarique Rahman.
A CID official said they will collect the information gleaned from Babar and decide if a case could be filed against him after consulting with top officials about the findings.
CID Assistant Superintendent of Police Arman Ali, investigation officer of the case, said he is still going through the case docket. "After reading the docket I will decide how to start my work," he told The Daily Star yesterday. As per the law, if Babar is found to have received the bribe, a bribery case will be filed against him and other beneficiaries of the bribe, the official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Pro-reform leaders of the BNP will take a hard line if Chairperson Khaleda Zia refuses to accept the proposals they claim are aimed to ensure intra-party democracy. They have identified the absolute power of the chairperson as the main obstacle to practising democracy within the party and so emphasised the importance of a collective leadership in their proposals that are likely to be made public within a couple of days.
Meanwhile, Khaleda Zia and the leaders loyal to her too seem resolved not to bring any changes bypassing the council. Also a former prime minister, she has already said reforms would be carried out in discussion with leaders down to the grassroots level once the ban on indoor politics is lifted.
Those for reforms say they are determined to purge the organisation of corrupt leaders and criminals. "We want to see a meaningful change....we want to free the party of corrupt individuals and terrorists," Ashraf Hossain, joint secretary general of BNP, told The Daily Star last night.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Members of the joint forces and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested in the port city Thursday midnight, Sarwar Jamal Nizam, a former BNP lawmaker from Chittagong 12 constituency. The crack forces arrested the former lawmaker acting on a tip off as he was coming out of Chittagong Club around 12:45am.
Sarwar Jamal is a brother of Maruf Nizam, the alleged mastermind of the abduction and murder of Chittagong business tycoon Jamal Uddin. Sarwar Jamal also have allegations against him of smuggling, interfering with government's tendering process and with the official duties of the police forces in his constituency.
Sources said he is also accused of helping the sensational offloading of ten trucks of firearms in the port city as well as of amassing a large amount of properties from unknown sources. After the arrest, Sarwar Jamal was taken to Rab-7 head quarters at Patenga where members of the joint forces, intelligence agencies, the task force and Rab were interrogating him.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Britains outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet Pope Benedict at the Vatican on Saturday (today) in preparation for his conversion to Papistry Roman Catholicism, British newspapers reported on Friday. The Guardian quoted unidentified sources in London and Rome as saying Blair, who is Anglican, had decided to seek admission to the Catholic Church.
Blair is due to step down as prime minister next Wednesday, handing over power to finance minister Gordon Brown. Blairs spokesman and a Vatican source have said Blair plans to go to Rome on Saturday. A spokesman for Blair - who is attending a European Union summit in Brussels - declined comment on reports in the Guardian and Daily Telegraph that he intended to convert.
The Guardian said the timing of Blairs announcement was uncertain. The announcement of his conversion was not expected to happen in Rome and might be made either before or after Blair leaves office next week, it said. The newspaper quoted informed sources as saying Blair had been prepared for conversion by a Royal Air Force chaplain who had said private mass for the Blair family for the last four years.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeah, so what? Who cares? The Church of England is moribund and, if not state-supported, would have disappeared quite some time ago. It's Tony's personal choice and once he's a private citizen, no one else's business.
Posted by: Mac ||
06/23/2007 1:51 Comments ||
Top||
#2
He will love the confessions. Admit some depraved conduct, have a priest say, "Absolum, absolum," and then go back to the depravity.
Former French President Jacques Chirac is refusing to be questioned in an investigation into an apparent smear scandal during his tenure as president, his office said Friday. Chirac was constitutionally guaranteed judicial immunity while he was in office, and therefore "cannot be ordered to provide testimony" in the investigation into the so-called Clearstream affair, his office said in a statement. The scandal centered on damaging but false allegations that current President Nicolas Sarkozy had secret bank accounts.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Surprise, surprise. Could it be that he's guilty as hell?
Ralph Nader says he is seriously considering running for president in 2008 because he foresees another Tweedledum-Tweedledee election that offers little real choice to voters.
Even the possible entry of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg into the race as an independent might not dissuade Nader.
#1
"Even the possible entry of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg into the race as an independent might not won't dissuade that ego-in-a-bad-suit Nader."
There - fixed.
Please do run, Ralphie - I'm depending on my popcorn stocks to finance my second house in the Caribbean retirement. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/23/2007 1:06 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I really think part of the inaugural should be for the first act of the newly sworn-in President to personally execute the losers.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/23/2007 14:18 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Can't wait to hear the coverage on this. I mena they practically frothed when Bloomberg noted he MIGHT run and everyone was on board with the splitting of the "Conservative" ticket. I wonder if they will be as fawning on Nader splitting the "Liberal" ticket? I guess we will see.
BEIJING - China marked the start of a state visit by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Thursday with agreements to reduce Iraqs debt by a large margin and expand economic cooperation.
The countries also were expected to discuss a 1997 deal for Chinas National Petroleum Corp. to develop the billion-barrel Al Ahdab oil field. The US$1.2 billion contract was signed by the company, also known as PetroChina, and the government of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. PetroChina began renegotiating the Al Ahdab deal in October. The project could be reactivated if Iraqs Parliament passes a hotly debated oil law.
Talabani, accompanied by a large delegation of ministers, met with Chinese President Hu Jintao late Thursday, but reports on their talks did not mention them discussing Iraqs rising violence. 'Your visit here shows that the new Iraqi government wants to develop China-Iraqi friendship, Hu told Talabani at the Great Hall of the People, the seat of Chinas legislature, following a formal welcoming ceremony. 'I hope we can develop our relationship and the questions that interest both our countries, Hu said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/23/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A new, untreatable form of tuberculosis is striking up to 30,000 people a year, the World Health Organization said on Friday, and warned it could spark an "apocalyptic scenario" if unchecked.
June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe's dollar plummeted 67 percent on the black market this week, forcing some retailers and gasoline stations in the capital, Harare, to stop trading. The currency, officially pegged at 250 against the U.S. dollar, sold for as much as 300,000 a dollar on the streets, where most Zimbabweans exchange their foreign currency, money traders said. It has depreciated from 100,000 earlier this week and from 3,000 to the dollar on Jan. 20.
(SomaliNet) A Zimbabwean judge on Friday threw out a bail bid by six Zimbabweans facing charges of plotting to overthrow veteran President Robert Mugabe saying they were fears they could flee, their lawyer said. "The judge said they not be granted bail because there is a danger that they might abscond," lawyer Charles Warara told AFP after the bail hearing held behind closed doors. "He also said the decision was arrived at to allow the police to make further investigations, since they said (Albert) Matapo has connections outside the country." 
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested five members of outlawed Purbo Banglar Communist Party (PBCP) in Raiganj upazila of Sirajganj district early yesterday. The arrestees are ziaur Rahman, 23, son of late Banat Ali, Mofizuddin, 42, son of Sobder Ali, Abdul Jalil, 32, son of Foyez Uddin, Momtaz, 20, son of Monju, and Labu, 21, son of Abdul Kuddus. All the five hail from Sorail village of the upazila.
Four students of Jahangirnagar University (JU) were yesterday injured as Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) cadres beat them up following filing of a case against some JCD cadres. The JCD cadres, led by Shohag and Istiaque, swooped on Samajtantrik Chhatra Front (SCF) university unit general secretary Shoumitra and member Anjan, and two general students, Taimur and Nafis, just after they had their lunch at Battola at around 2:00pm. Of the injured, Shoumitra and Anjan were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital while the rest given treatment at university medical centre.
Former state minister for communications Salahuddin Ahmed and ntv Managing Director Enayetur Rahman Bappi were sent to jail yesterday after they were produced before a Dhaka court on completion of their three-day remand in separate cases.
The CID is examining if any case could be filed against former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar for receiving Tk 20 crore from Bashundhara Group chairman in exchange for relieving his son of the Sabbir murder charge. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) started probing the murder of Bashundhara director Humayun Kabir Sabbir and Babar's receiving money soon after the case was transferred to it from the Detective Branch (DB) on June 12.
Pro-reform leaders of the BNP will take a hard line if Chairperson Khaleda Zia refuses to accept the proposals they claim are aimed to ensure intra-party democracy. They have identified the absolute power of the chairperson as the main obstacle to practising democracy within the party and so emphasised the importance of a collective leadership in their proposals that are likely to be made public within a couple of days. 
Members of the joint forces and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested in the port city Thursday midnight, Sarwar Jamal Nizam, a former BNP lawmaker from Chittagong 12 constituency. The crack forces arrested the former lawmaker acting on a tip off as he was coming out of Chittagong Club around 12:45am.
BEIJING - China marked the start of a state visit by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Thursday with agreements to reduce Iraqs debt by a large margin and expand economic cooperation. 
