White death.

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis has appeared in Britain."Cutting Edge" examines the history of four people suffering from this form of the disease and finds that the failure of some hospitals to diagnose and isolate patients suffering from tuberculosis responsible for the spread of the disease in its most virulent form. But even swift diagnosis could not save one patient who contracted the illness in Turkey and died after two years of chemotherapy and surgery. Of the four patients appearing in this programme, another died, an HIV+ man who may have contracted tuberculosis from a patient who was known to be suffering from this disease yet was being nursed on a general ward. Britain's number of known cases of multi- drug resistant TB is small but with no immediate prospect of new treatments, the alertness of medical staff is the only safeguard against an increase or even an epidemic.