Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

TB not hereditary

Sir, — This has reference to P.J. Bagilthaya's letter on `Hereditary leaders' (June 26). He may be right in his observations about the hereditary trend in politics, but he could have spared TB in his comparison. TB is not hereditary but an air-borne, infectious disease.

A victim will infect not only his children but also his close contacts (neighbours) while coughing, and some of the infected persons may develop TB.

It is surprising that the author, hailing from Bangalore, where the National TB Institute is functioning for over four decades, has mentioned TB as hereditary.

M. Kannan,
Chennai

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