TB Story

I had to take the wife (German) to a pulmonary lung specialist today, and this involved a good 2.5 hours of testing, waiting, and doctor chats.

So in the midst of this....she's sitting there and another patient comes over to sit down, and the two engage in a conversation.  I step out to get a cup of coffee, and later....the wife tells me the story of this lady patient who sat next to her.

This women, mid-30s, was a German nurse, at a special clinic in the Wiesbaden area.  Fully certified.  The clinic handled extreme cases of TB (Tuberculous).  Well.....last year, the lady starts having health issues, and gets tested.  She's contracted TB....obviously from one of the patients that she was handling.

So here's the thing....it's one of those extreme cases, where no known drug has any effect.  Yep....as bad as it can get.

The clinic offers up a severance package, and this lady goes into what is early retirement.  She's signed up for various test drugs and procedures....to halt the TB. 

This is one of those topic things that Germans quietly discuss.....the various diseases that were kinda 'fixed' and eliminated over the past decades, and now....it's reemerged onto the German landscape, with the various migrants who've arrived, and the system simply didn't test the folks entering through the system.  Sadly, she's affected and might be spending several years....while development of drugs goes on, and hopefully....they find a drug that can counter this before she passes on. 

For me, it's worrisome because I'm sitting in this lung clinic, and there could be others sitting in the waiting area....with the same problem, and you end up with contact with them. 

But added to this.....twenty years ago, I was lucky enough to return from some deployment, and get TB tested.....and found early-on that I had the initial TB business going on.  Luckily, six months of drug treatment, and that took care of that issue.