I got the news this morning from David, my ex-roommate and good friend, that he's tested positive for TB. It's in his lungs. We don't know yet if he's infectious, it's highly unlikely (the stage of the disease that can be transmitted involves lots of flu-like symptoms, and then death), but the not knowing is tough. Even tougher is the realization that we have no idea who he could have gotten it from, or when. Heck, it's probably not possible, but I can't make myself ignore the possability that he got it from me. My roommate while I was working at Showalter was in poor health, neither she nor her Mom seemed concerned about anything being contagious, I'm not even sure what was wrong with her, but... you know how the mind works. Also, TB can be carried by animals, although it's very rare in domesticated species like cats. Statistically, there's a 1 in 10 chance that David could have passed TB on to me, and from there a 1 in 10 chance I could have passed it on to Pat. This is of course ignoring the fact that none of us have shown the least signs of the infectious variant of the disease. The good news is that Greg was tested when he joined the military, and is clean. So that means that David was not infectious while Greg was around (either didn't have TB at the time, or had the latent stage). I was only there another 4 to 5 months. The good news, the doctors seem confident that David has latent TB (they basically said since he's obviously not dying, he's safe). This still means that he's going to have to take pills for the rest of his life to control it so that it doesn't become active (unless in 5 years or so the DNA cure becomes available to humans), but other than that he can live a normal life (although if he were then to get HIV, he'd basically be a dead man). If this is the scenario, and I test negative, then I have nothing to worry about at all. If, however, he's got active TB... there's a 51% chance he'll die in a few weeks/months (probably lower, since that's a global figure), and even if I test negative they still recommend I follow the treatment, just in case it's just not showing yet. Greg would have to do the same. If I were positive for TB, then Pat is in the same shoes I'm in with David, he's gotta get himself tested, and pray that my test comes back as latent, not active.

All fear-mongering aside, as I said, we all feel healthy, none of us have been badly sick recently, and I've been in Seattle for 3 months now so *if* David had had active TB at any time while I was there then he should be dead or hospitalized by now, not planning a trip to Japan. As far as that scenario of my giving it to him, scientifically it's pure bs, only active TB can be transmitted, and that always has some sort of symptom, and is generally shotly followed by death... and as above, I've been apart from him for 3 months, and *I'm* not dead yet. Still tho, as Pat is fond of saying, finding you may be hanged in a fortnight does a wonderful job of focusing the mind. I'd never really considered the possability that I might someday contract a disease such as TB... and I never would have thought a friend as close to me as David is would either. He's a good guy, he doesn't have any of the "risky" or "bad" behavior traits you associate with this sort of thing... I mean I know it's not an STD but still it often gets lumped in the same sort of mental catagory, of things that if you're smart you can avoid. Turns out you can't. All it takes is being around someone when they cough of sneeze, or just being around them a lot and breathing and rebreathing the same air. *shudders* Well, in the interests of getting to sleep tonight, I'm going to go back to the "nobody is showing symptoms, there's practically no chance that any of us are infectious, which means only David should have it" routine. Which is true. Really.