Bacteria bring new meaning to “Drug Dependency”

Evolution at its best!

Or worst, for those who are fighting Tuberculosis. According to an article posted by ScienceDaily.com, a new study shows that a strain of Tuberculosis actually thrives in individuals treated with rifampin. This same drug is used as treatment against Tuberculosis. In fact, according to MedlinePlus.com, a website run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “rifampin eliminates bacteria that cause Tuberculosis”.

This strain has not only become resistant to the drug, but apparently, now requires the drug for its own survival. This same drug is a “first line” drug meaning that many doctors proscribe this drug first as part of a multi-drug treatment plan. The researchers say that this dependent strain is difficult to identify in patients. This could mean that rifampin could prove useless in the fight against tuberculosis forcing health care professionals and researchers to rethink their plan of attack against the disease.

ScienceDaily.com says that “The study…conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Chongqing Pulmonary Hospital, Lanzhou University and Fudan University, will appear in the January 2010 issue of The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.”

On a darker more demented note: check this out.