JuST THe TiP Of A LeTHAL ICEBeRG

People tell me: FIgHTING FoR THe "ENd Of EXTReME POVeRTY" Is YOuR FIgHT NoT MINe! My response to this is; "If we don't get a cap on extreme poverty it will quite literally be our downfall": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTX5kwr1mk0 "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil, for every one who is striking at the root". H D Thoreau (The root is Extreme Poverty) Jeffrey Sachs Interview On Extreme Poverty, Chicago Public radio http://audio.wbez.org/wv/2007/02/wv_20070213b.mp3 We Are Racing Against an Airborne Killer and What You don't know Will hurt You, It is Just the Begining! January 17, 2007 — The emergence of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) — a form of TB that can be incurable — has set off alarms throughout the global health community. Called “Ebola on steroids” by some, XDR-TB is a particularly deadly threat to people with HIV/AIDS and is swelling to emergency proportions in Southern Africa. Unless steps are taken now to strengthen TB control efforts in Africa and throughout the world, these deadly strains will continue to spread and multiply — Undermining much of the recent progress in AIDS treatment scale-up and TB control, and posing a risk to the U.S. and members of our armed forces serving overseas. XDR-TB: A New Menace Emerges Poor TB treatment spawns multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and ineffective monitoring and treatment of MDR-TB gives rise to XDR-TB. XDR-TB strains raise the very real specter of a virtually untreatable disease. The Lancet reports an estimated 424,000 cases of MDR-TB occurred in 2004, and these drug-resistant strains have been found in nearly every nation. Without strong action now, we could soon see an explosion of XDR-TB cases. Already, XDR-TB has been identified in 26 countries on five continents — including the U.S. — and researchers worry this is just the tip of a lethal iceberg. XDR-TB: Threatening to Reverse Progress Against AIDS and TB The world caught a preview of this frightening scenario last summer when an outbreak of XDR-TB at one hospital in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa killed 52 out of 53 patients, most within a matter of weeks. All of those patients who were tested were HIV-positive, demonstrating that XDR-TB is a particularly deadly threat for people with AIDS. Even more worrisome is the fact that anti-retrovirals did not protect people with AIDS from the XDR-TB strain in the South Africa outbreak, underscoring the threat to progress made, and billions invested, in life-saving AIDS treatment scale-up in southern Africa (and in other regions where the two diseases collide, like Eastern Europe). The U.S. has invested billions of dollars to reduce deaths and sickness due to HIV/AIDS through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Especially in southern Africa — an epicenter of the AIDS pandemic and now the site of a growing MDR/XDR-TB disaster — lives saved by AIDS program scale-up could easily turn into casualties of an XDR-TB epidemic. Basic TB control programs — which are among the highest impact health interventions in the world — have seen enormous treatment success in the last decade, with massive expansions particularly in Asia, and with programs in place across in Africa and almost every nation in the world. The question we must answer is: If a modest investment now will save lives in Africa, protect the enormous investments and progress made in AIDS and TB treatment to-date, help secure our health here at home from nearly incurable TB and protect U.S. personnel overseas, how can we afford to not act? The consequences of inaction are predictable, costly and dire. Time Is Running Out XDR-TB is deadly, transmitted by the most natural act in the world: breathing. Delaying action would be a huge and irreversible mistake. In the early 1990s, an outbreak of MDR-TB in New York City cost about $1 billion to deal with just some 300 cases. MDR-TB is treatable. An XDR-TB outbreak here at home would be measured not just in dollars lost, but in the tragedy of human lives needless taken. We cannot afford XDR-TB at home and we must not merely stand by as it ravages the lives of those abroad. >> TB is the leading killer of people with HIV/AIDS Sincerely, Diana Nicholson