A drive backed by substantial funds to tackle the tide of multi-drug- resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) spreading around the world was announced by the World Health Organisation this week.
Diagnostic tests which take two days instead of three months will be introduced in developing countries where drug resistance is rapidly increasing.
Funding will also be made available for antibiotics — currently much more expensive than the basic TB treatment — needed by people who have multi-drug-resistant disease.
More than 5% of TB cases are now multi-drug resistant — defined as where the two standard drugs, rifampicin and isoniazid, have little effect — the WHO said.
Its latest estimate is that there are 490 000 MDR-TB cases every year and more than 110 000 deaths.
Current information shows that the former Soviet Union has the highest rates in the world. However, there is insufficient data from African countries to know how they are affected. It was in South Africa that the first cluster of an even more lethal form of the disease — extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) — was identified two years ago.
There are few drugs to treat XDR-TB and they are not available in developing countries. There have been cases of XDR-TB in 45 countries and the WHO says it threatens to derail 10 years of progress on TB control and HIV management. —