I love James Nachtway, he's such an amazing photographer. These are his photos.

Powerful stuff. I have had a lot of personal dealings with TB this year, with one friend (young, fit, healthy 25-ish year old German fella) very sick with it and confined to a quarantine floor in a special ward in Shinjuku for many months and his also quite healthy British girlfriend contracting it - but not actively sick with it - and under such strong meds that her liver is in a seriously sick state. They had to take her off the meds this week because her liver was reacting so badly. You are supposed to take them for 12 months.... The Germans bandmate also contracted it too. Another healthy young man.

I have heard a lot of startling facts about this seemingly ancient disease that show that it is indeed experiencing a major revival. Here are some facts:

* As of 2006, approximately 30,000 people have TB in Japan, with around 3,000 people dying yearly (WHO statistics)
* Britain's figures, with a population about half of Japan, are about 10,000 & 1,000 respectively.
* Approximately one third of the world's population has TB (Scary fact!)
* However, tuberculosis is only infectious when it is active (ie reaches the lungs)
* And only 5~10% of people with tuberculosis become sick or infectious.
* Symptoms of active TB are coughing for more than 2 weeks; phlegm; fatigue & chest pain