When rich countries eradicated TB, new treatments dried up. Now the disease has evolved to become drug-resistant - and it's the world's poorest people who are bearing the brunt
My role as a doctor is to make it possible for Andile to play football again. He used to train three times a week in Khayelitsha, one of the largest townships in South Africa - miles and miles of little brick houses interspaced with tin shacks on the edge of Cape Town.He says he was the type of player who didn't waste himself running aimlessly after the ball; rather, he analysed the game to make decisive passes that would lead his team to victory. But today, what Andile wishes above all is to be able to run, even aimlessly.
As it is, he can't even walk 10 metres without having to bend over to catch his breath. His lungs are so weak he is unable even to laugh. Tuberculosis has devoured them.
TB is a very old disease. It used to be called phthisis, or consumption. It kills 1.5 million people every year and ranks right behind HIV as the world's biggest infectious killer. Since it all but disappeared in most of the richest parts of the world half a century ago, though, developments in new TB treatments ground to a halt. This has allowed plenty of time for one of humankind's most vicious enemies to develop ways to beat the defences that were engineered to fight it.
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