tuberculosis

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She Refused Treatment for TB, Is Now Jailed

Woman in Washington state allegedly ignored pleas of health officials for a year

(Newser) - A woman in Washington state with the contagious disease of tuberculosis is now in jail after refusing to receive treatment or isolate herself for more than a year. The woman was taken into custody at her home last week and transported to the Pierce County Jail, reports the New York ...

Woman Refusing Treatment for Tuberculosis May Be Jailed

She has refused to isolate or be treated in Washington state

(Newser) - For more than a year now, Washington health officials have been trying to get a woman to complete treatment for tuberculosis—and now the woman, referred to only as VM in court papers, could end up behind bars as a result. A judge on Friday issued an order of contempt...

2 Deadliest Infectious Diseases Have This in Common

Tuberculosis, COVID-19 spread in aerosol particles generated by breathing: study

(Newser) - Masks and better ventilation could be key in preventing the spread of the world's second-most deadly infectious disease , just as with the first. Coughing has long been thought to be the main way in which tuberculosis, which claimed 1.5 million lives in 2020, spreads from person to person....

Out of Options, Alpaca Owner Vows to 'Obstruct' Executioners
A Public Fight to Save
Alpaca Is Over
UPDATED

A Public Fight to Save Alpaca Is Over

UK health officials euthanize Geronimo even though Helen Macdonald insisted he was healthy

(Newser) - Update: Geronimo the alpaca is dead. UK health officials euthanized the animal on Tuesday over the objections of its owner and despite a public outcry. The Telegraph reports there were "ugly scenes at the farm" as supporters tussled with the police who arrived to remove him. Our original story...

Alpaca Set for Execution Gets a Human Shield

Male tested positive for bovine tuberculosis; supporters say the tests are flawed

(Newser) - If dogs are man's best friend, alpacas must not be far behind, given that more than 100,000 people are appealing to save an alpaca in England from execution. Geronimo, an 8-year-old who came to Gloucestershire from New Zealand four years ago, tested positive for bovine tuberculosis when his...

This May Be 'Watershed Moment' in TB Fight
This May Be 'Watershed
Moment' in TB Fight
in case you missed it

This May Be 'Watershed Moment' in TB Fight

New vaccine could save millions of lives

(Newser) - The current vaccine for TB has been around nearly a century and has one giant flaw: The BCG vaccine helps infants but not adults. That's a big reason why tuberculosis is now the world's deadliest infectious disease, claiming 1.6 million lives a year. Now, however, comes news...

New Treatment for Deadliest Strain of Tuberculosis Is Massively Successful

FDA approves new 3-drug regimen

(Newser) - Good news for those with the deadliest strain of tuberculosis: It no longer has to mean a death sentence. Scientists have discovered a cure for extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, and on Wednesday, the FDA "effectively endorsed" it, the New York Times reports. Just a small percentage of people...

Zoo Forced to Put All Mammals on Contraception

It's worried about overcrowding during tuberculosis quarantine

(Newser) - Thanks, in all likelihood, to a tuberculosis-infected badger, a zoo in England has had to put 60 mammal species on birth control via injections, implants, tablets, and IUDs, the BBC reports. And, yes, that includes lions and tigers, according to the Times . The large cats must be knocked out with...

Chopin's Pickled Heart Explains His Death

Scientists say they've been able to determine cause 'with high probability'

(Newser) - Frederic Chopin is buried in Paris' famed Père Lachaise Cemetery. His heart is not. The composer asked, on his deathbed in 1849 at age 39, that his heart be buried not in France, but in his native Poland ( Nature reports that he feared being buried alive). And so...

Tuberculosis Outbreak Hits Texas High School

20 active TB cases found at George Bush High School

(Newser) - Texas' George Bush High School is facing a serious tuberculosis outbreak in the lead-up to the new school year. KHOU reports screenings of students and faculty at the Fort Bend school have revealed 20 active cases of TB. Students and faculty were told they must come in for testing over...

Humans' Nasty Gift to Neanderthals: Herpes?
Humans' Nasty Gift to Neanderthals: Herpes?
NEW STUDY

Humans' Nasty Gift to Neanderthals: Herpes?

Diseases out of Africa may have helped lead to their demise

(Newser) - Scientists claim Neanderthals were doomed by everything from climate change to their big eyes . A new study offers a different theory: humans were at least partly responsible. UK researchers say humans who migrated out of Africa were "reservoirs of tropical disease" and may have infected Neanderthals across Europe with...

Giant Rats Trained to Screen for TB in Prisons

And they're super good at it

(Newser) - Which are you more afraid of: giant rats or dying of tuberculosis? Hopefully you chose dying of tuberculosis, because Reuters reports a Belgian organization called APOPO is training dozens of African giant pouched rats to sniff out TB, starting with at-risk populations in the crowded prisons of Tanzania and Mozambique....

Drug's Price Hike From $16 to $360 Doesn't Last

But CEO behind another huge price hike stands firm

(Newser) - A huge hike in the price of a tuberculosis drug has been rolled back amid an outcry over the 5,000% leap in the price of another drug. A nonprofit group affiliated with Purdue University sold the rights to cycloserine to Rodelis Therapeutics on Aug. 19 , but it demanded them...

Woman With Super-Rare TB Traveled to 3 States

Officials trying to find 'hundreds of people' who may have been in contact with her

(Newser) - CDC officials say a woman with an extremely rare form of tuberculosis came to the US from India and traveled to three different states before being diagnosed with an active case of the disease. Now she's isolated at a National Institutes for Health clinic in Maryland, and authorities are...

Hospital Worker Exposed 700 Babies to TB

Texas woman was undiagnosed for nearly a year

(Newser) - A Texas woman with undiagnosed tuberculosis worked at a nursery in an El Paso hospital for nearly a year before she was diagnosed, potentially exposing 706 babies and 43 co-workers to the disease, reports Reuters . Calling TB "serious but treatable," El Paso's Department of Public Health is...

To Detect TB, Researchers Turn to Rats

Creatures sniff out the disease in Mozambique

(Newser) - The system used to detect tuberculosis in Mozambique is more than a century old—so researchers are asking some furry friends for help. Scientists have been teaching African giant pouched rats to alert them to infected mucus samples, National Geographic reports. The researchers slide the samples into the rats' cage,...

TB's Arrival in New World: Blame Seals
 TB's Arrival 
 in New World: 
 Blame Seals 
STUDY SAYS

TB's Arrival in New World: Blame Seals

New study also suggests TB is only 6K years old

(Newser) - Tuberculosis may have reached the New World long before Christopher Columbus ever sailed the ocean blue, a new study suggests. Scientists have examined 1,000-year-old Peruvian bones mysteriously infected with TB—500 years before the arrival of Spaniards, who are historically blamed for bringing TB to the New World, Nature ...

Arrest Warrant Issued for Guy Refusing TB Treatment

Eduardo Rosas Cruz could be putting others at risk

(Newser) - Prosecutors in Northern California said yesterday they have obtained an arrest warrant for a tuberculosis patient who has refused treatment and may be contagious. Eduardo Rosas Cruz, a 25-year-old transient, went to the San Joaquin General Hospital's emergency room in March complaining of a severe cough. Diagnosed with tuberculosis,...

TB Strikes Planet's Kids Twice as Hard as Thought
TB Strikes Planet's Kids
Twice as Hard as Thought
new study

TB Strikes Planet's Kids Twice as Hard as Thought

New study finds up to 1M kids are hit with tuberculosis each year

(Newser) - Today is World TB Day, and its arrival is met with some gloomy new estimates about the presence of tuberculosis among the world's kids. A study published in Lancet has found that as many as 1 million children under age 15 are hit with TB each year, reports the...

Missing Pussy Rioter Found in TB Hospital

She hasn't been sent to Siberian prison

(Newser) - Contrary to recent reports , incarcerated Pussy Riot troublemaker Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has not been shipped off to a Siberia prison—she's been shipped off to a Siberian hospital. Tolokonnikova has been off the grid for a while now, and yesterday, Russia's prison ombudsman said she'd been transferred to...

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