Extreme drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is a challenge that needs a collective regional approach, Southern African Development Community (SADC) health ministers said on Friday.
At a meeting held in Maputo, Mozambique, the ministers agreed that the free movement of people between SADC countries could compound the spread of the disease in the region.
Addressing the conference, South African Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said the fact that the disease had been identified in other provinces other than KwaZulu-Natal could mean that other areas in the SADC region may be affected as well.
”In South Africa, cases of XDR-TB were found in a hospital in the KwaZulu-Natal province … subsequently, there have been reports of a small number of additional cases in Gauteng and the Free State provinces,” she said.
”This could mean that there are other XDR-TB cases in the country and in the region as these reported cases were identified by special interventions.”
To help curb the problem or spread of the disease, ministers agreed on a regional cooperation and information-sharing approach between countries.
This would be done through the SADC secretariat.
Strengthening surveillance systems, infection control and diagnostics techniques for TB were some of the other resolutions agreed upon.
One of the challenges put forward at the conference was the limitations of drugs owing to the fact that no new TB drugs and diagnostic tests had been developed in the past 30 years.
”This makes XDR-TB much more difficult to treat … and could even lead to the recalling of the drugs that were taken off shelves due to their side effects and toxicity.”
Ministers therefore agreed to encourage the pharmaceutical industry to develop new drugs and diagnostic techniques for the effective treatment of the disease.
”A preparedness plan on XDR-TB needs to be developed within member states and at regional levels to deal with the challenge.”
XDR-TB is a multi-drug resistance tuberculosis that does not respond to at least three of the second-line TB treatments.
Fifty-two of the 53 patients who contracted virus in the Tugela Ferry area of KwaZulu-Natal, one of the provinces with the highest rates of HIV in the country, have since died from the outbreak.
Globally, XDR-TB has also been reported in several other countries, including the United States and Latvia, which have 4% and 19% prevalence rates respectively. — Sapa