TB that resists antibiotic treatment is causing problems in India.

Over crowded living conditions, poor hygiene, ill-informed medical staff are and over use of antibiotics are fueling the already rampant problem.

The risk of drug resistant disease becoming pandemic is one of the Greatest concerns of the World Health Organization.

The problem of evolving TB drug resistance has been brewing for years. In the early 1990s, multidrug-resistant TB began spreading in New York City, abetted by homelessness, prison outbreaks and HIV. Aggressive identification and treatment of these cases, including the direct observation of patients taking their pills, snuffed out that epidemic.

In 2005, extensively drug-resistant TB — strains untreatable with the three first-line drugs and several second-choice medications — cropped up in the South African province of Kwazulu-Natal, again abetted by HIV, which devastates immune defenses.

Thousands of chickens were destroyed after bird flu is discovered in Hong Kong.

The territory’s Director of Agriculture, Fisheries & Conservation declared the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market an infected place, the government said in a statement.
Local farmers will be prevented from sending chickens to the market for 21 days.
The government said that it was working to trace the origin of the chicken, which was infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus, but that it did not know at this point whether it was from a local farm or imported.

An investigation into skin lesions developed by two individuals after getting tattoos has concluded that both were infected with a bacteria not previously linked to the business.

The infections involved Mycobacterium haemophilum, which usually only strikes individuals with compromised immune systems.

In this instance, however, the patients, both from Seattle, developed rashes despite the fact that both had normal immune systems, a report on the investigation found.

The authors pointed out that tattooing is not considered a sterile procedure, is not regulated at the federal level and can be risky. And while the specific inks and colorings (pigments) commonly used to apply tattoos are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the rules usually apply only when cosmetics or color additives are involved.