Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Blog 9 Drug- Resistant Tuberculosis Knocks at Australia's Door


Australia’s first death from XDR-TB, a drug resistant tuberculosis, which is nearly incurable, has alarmed health officials. It has also added heat to a debate over how to treat immigrants with dangerous diseases.   Tons of small Australian islands mingle with islands belonging to Papua New Guinea, one of the world’s poorest nations. A World Health Organization report found serious drug shortages, and Australian television showed XDR patients mingling with others in an Australian hospital tuberculosis wards, raising the risk of spreading resistant strains. Treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis, when it works, can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Experts reported that the same problem exists on the borders between the United States and Mexico, and between Finland and Russia.  

The importance of this article is to raise awareness of the dangers of immigrants carrying diseases from one country to another. It discussed how the issue is not just in Australia but in other countries around the world such as the United States and Finland. Our society should be more educated on these dangerous diseases so people will get tested and treated for these diseases before they take the disease to another country. The article was flawed in that it did not present any suggestion to alleviate the problem of immigrants carrying diseases from one country to another. If a solution is not found, many more immigrants will bring diseases from one country to another, therefore spreading dangerous diseases such as tuberculosis even more.   


Bria Gill

3/26/13

5:30 A.M

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