(PHOTO) Bacteria in a skin tumor of Hodgkin's disease. Acid-fast stain, magnification times 1000.

(May 21, 2009) At the time of this writing there is a nationwide manhunt for Daniel Hauser, a 13 year old boy with Hodgkin's disease, a type of lymphoma cancer.

Citing religious reasons, his parents have refused to have the boy treated by a cancer doctor. After having received one chemo treatment, the boy also insisted he would physically fight the doctors if he were forced to continue therapy.

In the brouhaha, a Minnesota judge declared the boy had to submit to chemotherapy and radiation, thus stirring up a national debate.
Cancer experts claim the boy's cancer is 95% curable, and that he will likely die without therapy.

At last report, the mother and son had disappeared and, according to the father, might have left the country to whereabouts unknown.

What is Hodgkin's disease? What causes this uncommon form of cancer? Is there a cure for Hodgkin's?

And why don't cancer experts pay any attention to the tuberculosis-like bacteria claimed by various investigators to cause Hodgkin's?

Is Hodgkin's disease a bacterial infection?

Hodgkin's disease (HD) was first described in 1832 by Thomas Hodgkin.