By Jonathan Smith

The global fail­ure of tuber­cu­lo­sis (TB) pro­grams has reared its head again, and the recent strain of totally drug resis­tant TB (TDR-TB) has assuredly caught the atten­tion of every TB offi­cial around the globe. Instan­ta­neously the mur­murs of ‘what are the global impli­ca­tions,’ and ‘what do we do’ have arisen like gos­sip in a grade school play­ground.  It has stricken fear into the hearts of men, and threat­ens to ter­ror­ize global pub­lic health sys­tems. Soon, it would seem, we will be poised for a bio­log­i­cal mas­sacre of poverty-stricken populations.

But this has been hap­pen­ing for decades.

In our deranged world of rel­a­tive impor­tance, where head­lines and catchy names tran­scend basic pub­lic health neces­si­ties, it is not ter­ri­bly sur­pris­ing that Con­tinue read­ing →