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November 2008 • Vol. 3 • Issue 7
Special Veteran's Day Issue
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Remember Veteran's Day: November 11
 A Search for the Source is the amazing memoir of twice infected with tuberculosis, WWII veteran, Ed Reece.
Sixty-five years later, another bout with TB
"I've been thinking about how and why I came down with TB for a second time in my life. Also, why did it take so long to discover what was really wrong with me? I have been plagued with a nagging cough for the past three or four months. It gradually got a little worse until I went back to my doctor two weeks ago and insisted we find out what was bugging me. By now it had dawned on me that it might be a reactivation of my old TB case.
 Public Health Involvement
...Pondering my options, I asked "what next?" Veteran's Administration was a possibility but [the pulmonary specialist] thought I could be better served with less time lost, by the Public Health Department...Being unaware of the progress that has been made these past sixty years since I was treated for the disease in the 1940s I was pleasantly surprised that there were now drugs that would actually kill the organism and cure you completely of tuberculosis. As the plan unfolded I realized that this would not be as bad as the treatment available when I was initially diagnosed and treated between 1944 and 1948.
 Did I get TB in India, Africa, South America?
...Come with me on a trip back in time while I search for the source of my original infection with tuberculosis. After all, I had been many places during the time I was in the military and some of the countries I visited overseas had high incidences of tuberculosis. Could I have picked it up in India? Africa? South America?, or some less exotic place like Fort Worth, Texas or Memphis, Tennessee? Go with me through these next several pages to some of the places I went during World War II against the Germans and the Japanese.
Read more of Mr. Reece's amazing story [PDF, 496 K] >>
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