The Dreaded Lurgie

Scaremongering is whipping round after a man hopped on multiple flights even though he was infected with tuberculosis, many are wondering why he was allowed to do this… So let me tell you a story.

Back in the day when I was making the leap from illegal alien to permanent resident, I had to be taken to our doctors for a series of test, injections and blood samples. One of these tests and samples (and skin exam) revealed I had what appeared to be TB… As an aside, I have to mention that I didn’t, it was merely a false positive as, like most children in the UK, I had a BCG vaccination when I was around 12 or 13. Anyways, even though they couldn’t prove I didn’t have TB, they treated me like I did and probably did what they do to most likely 99% of potential TB cases.

They put me on a course of Isoniazid that lasted 6 whole months.

That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less… In fact, the only warning I was given was not to drink alcohol while on the medication as it might kill my liver.

Sure, the TB I didn’t have wasn’t this Extensively drug-resistant TB, but I can’t help but feel this is going to make regular (and indeed treatable) TB sufferers outcast as lepers… Judging by the reaction on the Atlanta Metroblog, it’s already begun. But before you rattle your cage and demand people be put under house arrest or quarantine, digest this little nugget.

Over one-third of the world’s population now has the TB bacterium in their bodies and new infections are occurring at a rate of one per second. Not everyone who is infected develops the disease and asymptomatic latent TB infection is most common. However, one in ten latent infections will progress to active TB disease which, if left untreated, kills more than half of its victims.

How would you feel if it was you?