Post navigation It's not that we can't cure TB , it's that we can't cure TB for poor people The global fail-ure of tuber-cu-lo-sis ( TB ) pro-grams has reared its head again, and the recent strain of totally drug resis-tant TB ( TDR-TB ) has assuredly caught the atten-tion of every TB offi-cial around the globe. Instan-ta-neously the mur-murs of 'what are the global impli-ca-tions,' and 'what do we do' have arisen like gos-sip in a grade school play-ground.  It has stricken fear into the hearts of men, and threat-ens to ter-ror-ize global pub-lic health sys-tems. Soon, it would seem, we will be poised for a bio-log-i-cal mas-sacre of poverty-stricken populations. But this has been hap-pen-ing for decades. In our deranged world of rel-a-tive impor-tance, where head-lines and catchy names tran-scend basic pub-lic health neces-si-ties, it is not ter-ri-bly sur-pris-ing that we for-get about uncom-pli-cated, drug-susceptible TB . This acronym-less killer is respon-si-ble for more deaths on the African con-ti-nent than any other nat-ural dis-ease, yet is allowed to run ram-pant through-out poor and for-got-ten com-mu-ni-ties. The result of this neg-li-gence is hun-dreds of thou-sands of deaths each year, but they are hid-den in shan-ty-towns and remote vil-lages of the world's poor-est coun-tries. Com-mu-ni-ties that we con-tinue to turn our backs on. It's not that we can't cure TB , it's that we can't cure TB for poor people. " We live in a fab-ri-cated world where Band-Aid reme-dies allow the poverty-stricken patients to be out of sight and