Mistaken identity: New report highlights the global impact of medical misdiagnosis

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/uot-min120111.php

Public release date: 1-Dec-2011

Contact: Jim Oldfield
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416-946-8423
http://www.utoronto.ca/">University of Toronto

Mistaken identity: New report highlights the global impact of medical misdiagnosis

December 1, 2011—Researchers have discovered that over a million people worldwide diagnosed with TB go on to develop an incurable but manageable fungal infection which is usually left untreated because it is mistaken for a recurrence of the disease.

In a new report published today in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, the researchers from University of Manchester and University of Toronto say because the X-ray features and symptoms are so similar doctors often misdiagnose and prescribe the wrong treatment which can lead to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.

The fungal infection responsible, chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA), evades the immune system in the lungs progressing slowly and may lie undetected for years until symptoms (weight loss, tiredness, coughing and bleeding) start to develop. By then it is often too late to treat successfully.

50 per cent of all patients who develop it are unlikely to survive for more than five years, a similar outlook to many cancers.

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http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/12/11-089441/en/index.html