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- THE WEEK, Page 17HEALTH & SCIENCEET CETERA
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- TUBERCULOSIS ADVANCE
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- One of modern medicine's disheartening setbacks has been the
- emergence of TB strains that are resistant to standard
- medication. In last week's Nature, researchers from Hammersmith
- Hospital in London and from the Pasteur Institute in Paris
- report they have uncovered the genetic reason behind this
- dangerous trend. They have discovered that common forms of the
- TB bacterium bear a gene that makes it susceptible to the
- antibiotic isoniazid -- a gene that is missing in drug-resistant
- strains. The finding could lead to improved diagnostic tests
- that will help doctors treat people with drug-resistant TB
- before they can pass the infection on to others.
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