It amazes me that I can often talk to people who think the tuberculosis threat is a thing of the past. Everyone knows about the global AIDS pandemic, but in my casual conversations, I find much less awareness of TB. But 9 million people developed active tuberculosis in 2005 alone. One-third of the world’s population is infected. As a worldwide infectious killer, TB is second only to HIV/AIDS (though the two diseases very often co-occur)—taking 2 million lives per year.
And there’s a new problem. Though multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, now present in most countries, is defined as resistance to at least two of the most powerful “first line” drugs (isoniazid and rifampicin), it is still treatable. A tailored regimen of “second line” drugs can cure a large percentage of patients. But when second-line drugs are misused—for example, by not ensuring regular treatment for patients with drug-susceptible strains or by failing to recognize resistant strains early—the bacilli develop more resistance. So now we must deal with XDR-TB (extensively drug resistant): strains that even currently-available second line drugs can’t kill. While concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, XDR-TB has been identified in 28 countries (including all G8 nations). See http://www.who.int/tb/xdr/en/index.html for more information on a global plan to halt this epidemic.
Terrifying. For current patients, the prognosis is grim; however, the philanthropist George Soros through the Open Society Institute recently gave $3 million to Partners in Health and other organizations to work on a treatment strategy for the co-occurrence of XDR-TB and HIV. They're working extremely hard to avoid death sentences. The WHO also called for $650 million in emergency funding (from governments like ours) to try to stop XDR-TB from potentially reversing major public health gains in HIV/AIDS and TB care over the past several years.
But the situation should also be terrifying for anyone who might argue that treating poor people for a disease like MDR-TB is not “cost-effective.” Personally, I have absolutely no sympathy for these people—not compared to the thousands dying every day from a disease we’ve known how to treat for half a century. But now Mycobacterium tuberculosis is outsmarting our science. As Dr. Paul Farmer writes in Infections and Inequalities, “We live in a world where infections pass easily across borders—social and geographic—while resources, including cumulative scientific knowledge, are blocked at customs.” Because of our failure to adequately care for all people, we now have a threat to all people—the rich along with the poor.
What is even more frightening to me is that one third of the world's population is potentially taking the old antidepressant - no different than the serotonergic group of antidepressants that has become so popular with even "homicidal ideation" listed as a side-effect!! Since when has homicide become an acceptable side effect to a medication?!!
ReplyDeleteThis old antidepressant, Isoniazid, has been known to induce this same response, yet somehow the manufacturer got it approved for treating TB after it was pulled from the market as an antidepressant. It deserves more attention than it is getting. How often is it involved in violent crime as we see with the other antidepressants? (See a very long list at www.drugawareness.org of antidepressant-induced violence) And who would think to even look for an antidepressant in a murder or suicide or other violent crime when they were just being treated for TB rather than a "mental disorder" that you would expect to find behind some bizarre out of character violence?
Certainly TB is a terrible disease that has increased dramatically in the past two decades. Interestingly that increase has coincided with the increased use of antidepressants which are known to shut down the immune system via their steroid-like response in doubling cortisol levels. We have a multitude of natural substances that treat TB very effectively without having to turn to drugs. For instance the simple oils of Lemon, Clove, Cinnamon, Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Frankincense, Oregano, and others have been known for their broad-spectrum anti-microbial properties which can both prevent the spread of and treat TB.
But these natural cures do not bring in the billions upon billions of dollars that the drug industry can bring in on their deadly drugs. Their marketing is based on fear. We NEED to educate ourselves! They hope that we will not have looked far and wide enough to find anything that will work for a problem and will turn to them for the answer to our woes. But when the scriptures say that in our day they will call evil, good and good, evil they saw today's drug companies very clearly!
Dr. Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition For Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org
Dr. Tracy,
ReplyDeleteI only did a cursory search of the pharmacoepia and scientific literature databases, but I could not find anything about the use of isoniazid as an anti-depressant. All I found were studies on the interaction effects of isoniazid when used with certain anti-depressants. At what point was this in use? How would the drug work as an anti-depressant since its biochemical action is to inhibit synthesis of an acid on the mycobacterial cell wall? How would the drug work as a serotonin inhibitor or like action in the brain?
Isoniazid, when used properly, has saved thousands (I would say millions) of lives from tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is life-threatening, and we have proven antibiotics to cure it. I do believe in natural therapies as well, but I also believe in the power of modern medicine.
From penicillin to the most powerful anti-retroviral to new life-saving chemotherapy drugs, we can treat the most deadly of afflictions. In my mind the most crucial problem is getting medicine to people who need it.
Thank you for your comment though. I did look at the ICDA's website.
~Brennan