The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has received nearly 800 phone inquiries following the revelation Monday that Haruka Minowa, of the popular female comic duo Harisenbon, has contracted tuberculosis.
The unusually large number of inquiries suggests the comic's illness has served as a wakeup call to those who generally believed TB, once considered incurable, was no longer a serious threat thanks to medical advances, said Nobukatsu Ishikawa, head of the Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Japan Anti-Tuberculosis Association.
"People tend to think tuberculosis has disappeared. That is a dangerous thought," he said. "Many people still get infected."