Letters to Editor Respond to Times Column on XDR-TB
Two letters to the editor of the New York Times on Sunday responded to a recent opinion piece on extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in the opinion piece said that XDR-TB is "being nurtured by global complacency" and "could spread" to the U.S. "because it isn't being aggressively addressed now" (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 12/8). Summaries of the letters appear below.
- Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio): Kristof was "right to remind Americans that we are not immune to the threat of [TB]," Brown writes. He adds, "As more strains of TB become drug-resistant and as our world continues to globalize, we must learn from past epidemics to prevent this growing one." Brown writes that although the Comprehensive Tuberculosis Elimination Act, which was signed into law earlier the year, "makes investments to combat the threat of domestic TB, we can't overlook the threat TB presents around the world" (Brown, New York Times, 12/14).
- Carol Dukes Hamilton: Kristof was "right to warn President-elect Barack Obama" about multi-drug resistant TB, Dukes Hamilton -- medical director of North Carolina's TB Control Program and co-chair of the Infectious Diseases Center for Global Health Policy and Advocacy and the Infectious Diseases Society of America -- writes. She adds that it would be "deeply irresponsible, given the low level of United States financing for TB programs," for Obama to "propose a freeze on international affairs spending for 2010," which Reps. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) have suggested. Hamilton adds that Obama should "confront TB head-on by proposing immediate, emergency financing for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and $650 million to scale up TB programs in 2010." She concludes, "We cannot allow pennywise but pound-foolish thinking to prevail when it comes to TB and other epidemics" (Dukes Hamilton, New York Times, 12/14).
