Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - September 13, 2006
Doctors later located and quarantined the HIV-positive woman -- who had refused treatment and walked out of a Johannesburg hospital -- but they fear she infected other people with extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis.
Sometimes known as XDR tuberculosis, the virulent disease already has killed 52 people in the neighboring KwaZulu-Natal province, the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Network reported.
"We will now trace her contacts ... and test them for the XDR tuberculosis strain," said Dr. Abdul Rahman, the health department's chief of operations. "If there are any signs she has spread the disease, we will isolate those patients and begin treatment immediately."
The emergence of XDR tuberculosis has put health officials on high alert across South Africa, where one in nine people is HIV-positive and 900 die every day from AIDS.
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