Er. Perhaps I should reword that headline 
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Anyway, this year the Columbia OneRead program has chosen “The Air We Breath” by Andrea Barrett. Other shows on this station have talked about the story and the social issues surrounding the book. We will leave that to their expertise. We, of course, will talk about the tech. And, in this book, a very salient topic: Tuberculosis (TB).
In prepping for this and talking with others, I was surprised (and so were others) that TB is so dangerous and such a modern problem. I thought of it basically as a “solved problem”. LIke Small Pox or Pneumonia.
But, no, TB infection rates are actually rising and there is no known vaccine for adults. And, the vaccine for children is only so-so effective and dwindles at adulthood. In other words, if you are an adult, you can get TB. Even now. No matter what you have done.
But lets’s step back. What is TB.
* TB is a bacterial infection. It only takes a single cell making it past your immune system to start the disease. Breath near an infected person who recently coughed; you might get it.
* TB is deadly. About 1.6 Million died from it in 2004. There is a cure once you have it. Assuming it isn’t a resistant strain. Assuming you figure out what you have in time. Which brings us to:
* It might seem like a really bad cold that lasts 3+ weeks. It’s not always obvious that a person is infected at first and is potentially spreading it around.
* Having HIV or Diabetes appears to greatly increase your odds of catching it. Erm, I’m not saying that HIV and Diabetes are related diseases. I think it probably has to do with their effects on the immune system.
* It is purely a human disease. If we wipe it out everywhere for a breif moment of time, it would go extinct. Just like smallpox did. (mostly)
Because it is possible to wipe out, it sounds like a good candidate to, well, wipe out. The problem is a lack of good vaccine. Simultaneously curing and isolating all known cases is logistically impossible (1/3rd of the planet according to some). So, it’s vaccine or nothing AFAIK. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (in 2006) and Aeras Global TV Vaccination Foundation (in 2003) started working on that. They have been genetically modifying the BCG vaccine and are currently running 6 trials on variants.