Written by Audrey Markoff for Microsoft, New England Research and Development center blog. In Boston we don’t think aboutTuberculosis (TB) often, if at all. Like most Americans, you were probably vaccinated, but the scary truth is no one is exempt from…
Written by Bill Thies, Researcher, Microsoft Research India for their blog. In India, I have seen first-hand the faces of those stricken by tuberculosis (TB), one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Every year, 9 million people contract TB and here in…
Also published on www.onlymyhealth.com. Onlymyhealth.com is a product of MMI Online Ltd which is a strategic online division from the house of Jagran Prakashan, India's Leading Media conglomerate. ‘India is moving towards urbanization’- this is one statement that I have heard, not once, but…
Also published on www.globalvoices.org. Global Voices is an international community of bloggers who report on blogs and citizen media from around the world.
The Indian media and blogosphere have been locked in fierce battle over two words: “extensively,” and “totally.” If you’ve been following Indian news at all, you know that I’m talking about the global health community’s tuberculosis debate.
India’s media sphere exploded last week with reports from Mumbai of a tuberculosis strain completely resistant to all known treatment. The Indian newspapers coined it “totally drug-resistant tuberculosis” or TDR-TB. But just a few days later the World Health Organization released a statement refuting the term TDR-TB, saying that it has no clearly definition for TDR-TB, and that the TB emerging in Mumbai, India is merely another strain of extremely drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB). They’re now calling it XXDR-TB, or “extensively drug-resistant TB.”