Tamping Down Tuberculosis in Russia

1
Tamping Down Tuberculosis in Russia

• The methods for fighting the multidrug resistant
  TB epidemic in Russia
• Merrill Goozner / Scientific American

2
HEADQUARTERS A Napoleonic-era building that is
Moscow's tuberculosis (TB) research hospital and
the home of the Research Institute for
Phthisiopulmonology (tuberculosis study). Since
the 1990s, Russia has struggled to deal with a
epidemic of TB, an infectious disease of the
respiratory tract that can spread to other organs
and become lethal.
3
UNDER THE KNIFE Surgery is still widely
employed in Russia to treat TB, despite
international controversy over its use. Professor
Ivair Strelisi, chief of the TB Department of
Siberian State Medical University in Tomsk as
well as chief surgeon at the hospital, examines a
patient named Alexander Ryazonov. This
32-year-old had one lung partially removed two
days before. About 10 to 15 percent of hospital
patients ultimately get surgery, Strelisi said.
4
HARD TO REACH, HARD TO TREAT A nurse
administers drugs to a person infected with
multidrug resistant (MDR) TB living in a
tenement. Caregivers deliver medicine to public
housing residents to help ensure that the
treatment, called "directly observed therapy,
short course," or DOTS, is properly taken and
that the drug regime is completed.
5
BREATH COLLECTOR Prof. Strelisi shows off a
so-called "clean room" facility where
sputum--aerosolized, TB-carrying saliva and
mucus--from the lungs can be tested.
6
ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY? Soli Asadov, a
36-year-old migrant worker from Uzbekistan,
contracted TB two years ago, but admits he has
not followed the regimen for treating the
disease.
7
QUARANTINED IN CLOSE QUARTERS Patients with
MDR-TB are often housed in separate facilities to
minimize the chances of infecting others with the
hard-to-kill bacterium.
8
TB TECHNOLOGY Jerald Sadoff, president and CEO
of the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, stands
before the nonprofit organizations large-scale
bioreactor, a device where TB experiments can be
carried out.
9
NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT Careful records are kept
of dispensed medications, and administrative
staff often take extra precautions to avoid
getting TB while on the job.