-- Health
TUBERCULOSIS MUTATES IN JAILS
International health authorities are concerned about a new and deadly strain of tuberculosis in overcrowded prisons in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, fearing it may spread to epidemic levels in the outside general population. The danger comes from a mutant form of tuberculosis, which results when an ordinary TB sufferer receives sub-standard treatment. Alex Goldfarb, director of the Russian TB Project funded by George Soros, said that if the money is not spent soon, the cost of the epidemic to the world, as he put it: "will be counted in thousands of millions, and may become unmanageable." Prison reformers say that prisons in the former Soviet Union complicate the problem because they are chronically overcrowded and unsanitary, and are thus breeding grounds for the disease. The best way to tackle the problem is to reduce overcrowding in prisons, a priority in countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, and Belarus that have among the highest prison populations in the world relative to general population. (RFE/RL, October 2)
Top