Worldwide, AIDS and TB Drive Each Other
What if someone said that there is a devastating disease that worldwide kills more people than AIDS and is as easy to catch as the flu? Indeed, one World Health Organization official called it “ebola with wings.” Well, there is: tuberculosis.
The recent world AIDS conference was liberally dosed with presentations about TB, which also kills more AIDS patients than any other cause. The global AIDS pandemic is concentrated in the developing world, and perhaps one-third of that world population carries the TB bacteria; i.e., it is endemic. In the U.S., AIDS patients typically suffer almost total immune collapse and then die of relatively wimpy “opportunistic illnesses.” However, Third World HIVers fall prey to the much tougher and endemic TB when only partially immune-compromised.
Indeed, tuberculosis — including drug-resistant strains — threatens some nations, particularly Russia, with the same devastation and destabilization that AIDS poses for South Africa and Botswana. When AIDS and TB collide, as they are in nuclear-endowed Eastern Europe, true global security issues arise.
The current administration makes much of “homeland security,” and much of the CDC’s work has been re-routed to (nonexistent) anthrax. Meanwhile, TB is moving freely about the world — and increasingly being brought into the U.S. by immigrants and jet passengers — with potentially lethal consequences. It is a time bomb silently waiting, but like AIDS, it doesn’t have to explode. However, committed leadership in many nations and substantial funding from the wealthy world will be needed. Will we rise to the challenge?
This article appears in August 16 • 2002.