- A Completely new strain of TB (tuberculosis) which is totally resistant to medications has emerged from Iran.  Tuberculosis is one of the oldest known human diseases and infects 5 million new people every year.  Currently about 3 millions people die from TB every year and up to 40 percent of the global population
may be infected with TB.

· According to an article in the last issue of the journal Chest, a new strain of Tuberculosis has developed in Iran that is completely resistant to medications.
Researchers studied stains of TB from people infected with resistant TB.  Of the 146 strains that were studied, 10% were completely resistant to all known TB medications.
Tuberculosis has traditionally had a high resistance rate and people infected with TB are usually treated with 2 to 4 medications for 6 months.  The finding by these researchers of a completely drug resistant TB is very troublesome.
Tuberculosis is as contagious as Swine flu and much more deadly.  With all of the energy and resources currently being put into the fight against new Swine flu, we could be missing ticking time bomb.

Reference
Chest 2009;136:420-425,333-335.