A new, particularly virulent strain of tuberculosis is circulating in Africa and has specialists warning of global implications.

The strain was first identified by Dr. Tony Moll in tests conducted at King George v Hospital in Durban, a provincial capital in South Africa. What makes this strain stand out is how deadly it is. The strain has killed 52 of 53 patients in South Africa, within an average of 16 days of diagnosis.

The World Health Organization has classified this strain of tuberculosis as extremely drug resistant. Two of six medicines used to treat the disease have proved fruitless. Dr. Francois Venter, of the Southern Africa hiv Clinicians Society, stated, “tb has always been a problem, but the development of xdr [Extremely Drug Resistant] is unbelievably bad news for southern Africa with its heavy hiv and tb burden.” Tuberculosis is the leading cause of aids-related deaths.

Equally troubling is that there is a potential the virus has traveled outside of South African borders, raising fears of escalation. “[Y]ou can almost be sure there will be infection in Mozambique and even farther [abroad] because people travel,” said microbiologist Willem Sturm.

The fact that tuberculosis is making a strong comeback has medical experts from the University of Cape Town issuing a global warning. In the British Medical Journal of September 15, Stephen Lawn and Robert Wilkinson wrote an editorial describing the threat the new strains of tuberculosis pose.

Their editorial highlights the case of a rural hospital in South Africa where 41 percent of tb cases were identified as being multi-drug resistant, of which 24 percent were extensively drug resistant.Referring to other medical studies which have identified extremely drug-resistant tb in Europe, Asia and North America, the article’s authors warn that the spread of this form of tb is a matter of concern for public health because it is “almost untreatable.”

The warning is, diseases once thought broken and beaten often lurk just under the surface. If the line of thinking by specialists be considered, should current drug-resistant-disease trends continue, America and other developed Western nations could face a comeback of such classic diseases as tuberculosis in the near future.

In the Bible, we are warned that many diseases like consumption (chronic, degenerative diseases such as aids), inflammation (malaria or communicative diseases such as influenzas), emerods (tumors, cancer, etc.) and other diseases “whereof thou canst not be healed” will prevail in the world if God’s laws are broken (Deuteronomy 28:27). So even though it is assumed that degenerative diseases are just a fact of life, they should not be. But as long as God’s laws, including His healthful living laws, are broken, diseases will continue to proliferate, despite the best efforts of man to contain them.