Nation IN BRIEF : MARYLAND : TB Strains Hitting Victims of AIDS

New strains of tuberculosis attacking AIDS victims can kill in a matter of weeks, and one expert in the field has suggested that people refusing TB treatment should be quarantined. Tuberculosis is easily spread--often through a sneeze or a cough--and until recently has been easily cured with antibiotics. Scientists attending the opening of the World Congress on Tuberculosis in Bethesda, Md., expressed worry about new strains that resist traditional drug therapy and the swiftness with which the disease can kill people already infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. As many as 15 million Americans are infected with tuberculosis but in almost all cases the disease is held in check by the body’s immune system.