Alimuddin Zumla: infectious diseases guru and survivor

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Two near-death experiences have made Alimuddin Zumla cherish every day of life. Zumla, now one of the world's most respected infectious and tropical diseases experts, and Professor of Infectious Diseases and International Health at University College London (UCL), often reflects on these experiences and second chances that fate has given him. The first, while working as a junior doctor in London in 1982, was a bout of crippling tuberculous meningitis. Doctors said he would never walk again, but Zumla overcame this prognosis. The second scare came in 2005; misdiagnosed as tuberculosis, the mysterious illness was eventually diagnosed as multisystem sarcoidosis from information collected by his wife Farzana from the textbook Granulomatous Disorders that Zumla himself had authored. The white plague returns to London—with a vengeanceIn 1660, John Bunyan (1628–88), an English Christian writer and preacher, described tuberculosis as “The Captain among these men of death” when tuberculosis case rates in London had reached a phenomenal 1000 per 100 000 population per year,1 far more than current rates of 340 per 100 000 in sub-Saharan African countries.2 During the 19th century, the white plague, as tuberculosis was named in Victorian Britain (due to the loss of skin colour seen in London tuberculosis patients), continued to ravage Britain, and up to 25% of deaths in Europe were caused by this disease. Full-Text PDF