You can also read about XDRTB on Wikipedia.

I, for one, was not aware that XDRTB was the direct result of the improper administration of the drugs that treat the currable strains of TB.  This makes sense in the same way super bugs could be created through the flushing of all that antibacterial soap into our sewers and waterways: kill the weaker strains, and the bad bugs will flourish.

Through the XDRTB Web site, you can send a form letter to the 2008 candidates for President of the United States.  This approach to exercising our right to the ears of our leaders does work.  Please consider taking a moment to reach out and touch your candidate, whomever he (or she!) may be.

Incidentally, of the words pandemic and epidemic, pandemic is the more serious of the two.