49 TB patients escape from S. African hospital

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Forty nine highly infectious tuberculosis patients cut through wire fencing and broke out of a hospital isolation unit, apparently because they wanted to spend Christmas with their families.

The mass escape highlights the problems faced by South Africa as it struggles to cope with an epidemic of virtually incurable TB that feeds off the AIDS virus and kills most of its victims. South Africa has an estimated 5.4 million people living with the AIDS virus.

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