US woman battling drug resistant tuberculosis

By Caribbean Medical News Staff
She travelled from the US through Chicago and onto India and just seven weeks after arriving back home, the patient, who also spent time in Missouri and Tennessee, sought treatment and has been disclosed to have been exposed to a drug-resistant tuberculosis.
The CDC says there is “no need to panic”. However, tuberculosis is a bacterial infection known to attack the lungs of patients. Spread through the air, the disease can attack the brain, spine and kidneys and may also be fatal. This patient is in significantly more serious condition.
Contact tracing has already started as the CDC tries to find out just who else has been exposed and authorities are working around the clock to determine who may have been exposed. According to the CDC, the patient has a rare and known drug-resistant form of tuberculosis known as XDR-TB, resistant to four core anti-TB drugs.
“The likelihood that this person transmitted the illness is low, but this is a very serious illness so we can’t take any chances, and need to get the close contacts in for testing,” said Tom Skinner, a spokesperson at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “TB is a very serious illness and the XDRTB version is difficult to treat.”
TB can be spread from patient to patient or people can contract TB if they are already ill and anti-TB drugs are misused and the prognosis is worse for those is ill with XDR-TB. That said, the disease can be cured but chances for recovery are slim in patients presenting with XDR-TB.
The female patient is in stable condition at the National Institutes of Heath Clinical Center in Maryland, the CDC said.

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