DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS SPREADING FAST - WHO NEWS HEADLINES STORY
TUBERCULOSIS SPREADING FAST: -
WHO LONDON TUBERCULOSIS NEWS HEADLINES Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading even faster than medical experts had feared, the World Health Organization warned in report issued Tuesday. The rate of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB patients infected with the Drug-resistant tuberculosis strain topped 20 percent in some countries, the highest ever recorded, the U.N. agency said. Though the report is the largest survey of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB, based on information collected between 2002 and 2006, there are still major gaps: Data were only available from about half of the world's countries.
MISTAKES IN DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS TREATMENT
"Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to see rates like this," said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of WHO's "Stop Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB" department. "This demonstrates what happens when you keep making mistakes in Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB treatment." In Africa, where experts are particularly worried about a lethal collision between Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB and AIDS, only six countries provided information.
DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS OUTBREAK UNPRECEDENTED
"We really don't know what the situation is in Africa," Raviglione said. "If multi-Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB has penetrated Africa and coincides with AIDS, there's bound to be a disaster." Raviglione said it was likely that patients — and even entire outbreaks of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB — were being missed.
DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS VIRTUALLY UNTREATABLE IN POOR COUNTRIES
Experts also worry about the spread of XDR-TB, or extensively Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB, a strain virtually untreatable in poor countries. When an XDR-TB Drug-resistant tuberculosis outbreak was identified in AIDS patients in South Africa in 2006, it killed nearly every patient within weeks. WHO's report said XDR-TB Drug-resistant tuberculosis has now been found in 45 countries.
HALF A MILLION DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS CASES EVERY YEAR
Globally, there are about 500,000 new cases of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB every year, about 5 percent of the 9 million new Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB cases. In the United States, 1.2 percent of Drug-resistant tuberculosisTB cases were multi-drug resistant. Of those, 1.9 percent were extensively drug-resistant. High rates of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB were also found in China and India, the world's two most populous nations that together are home to half the world's cases.
HIGHEST RATE OF DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS IS IN EASTERN EUROPE
The highest rates of drug-resistant TB were in eastern Europe. Nearly a quarter of all tuberculosis TB cases in Baku, Azerbaijan, were drug-resistant, followed by about 20 percent in Moldova and 16 percent in Donetsk, Ukraine, WHO said. That is not the case in China, however, where the government says 94 percent of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB patients complete their first TB treatment. Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB arises when primary tuberculosis TB treatment is poor. Countries with strong treatment programs, like the U.S. and other Western nations, should theoretically have very little Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB.
DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS COULD BECOME AN EPIDEMIC
"There's a huge, gross discrepancy there if they are then reporting 25 percent of the world's multi-Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB cases," said Mark Harrington, executive director of Treatment Action Group, a public health think tank. "They are clearly nurturing a multi-Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB epidemic and failing to report XDR-TB at all." "We are totally off track right now," said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, executive director of Medecins Sans Frontiere's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. He said only 30,000 multi-drug TB resistant patients were treated last year. With growing numbers of Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB patients, there is concern some national health systems will soon be overwhelmed.
DRUG RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS COULD BECOME A THREAT TO EVERYONE ON EARTH
Experts said new drugs are needed if the outbreak is to be curbed, along with new diagnostic tests to identify Drug-resistant tuberculosis TB strains faster — current tests take about a month for results. "Multi-Drug-resistant tuberculosist TB is a threat to every person on the planet," Harrington said. "It's not like HIV, where you are only infected through specific actions. TB is a threat to every person who takes a train or a plane." WHO said a new diagnostic test able to provide results within a day is being tried in South Africa and Lesotho. If successful, the test could be introduced across Africa in a few months, though new labs would be needed to run the tests.
