PHA-Exchange> UN HEALTH AGENCY CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION TO FIGHT DRUG-RESISTANT TB SURGE

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern.weitzel at undp.org>


 UN HEALTH AGENCY CALLS FOR URGENT ACTION TO FIGHT DRUG-RESISTANT TB SURGE
>
> With multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) striking parts of Eastern
Europe and Central Asia 10 times more heavily than
> elsewhere in the world, the United Nations health agency today called for
increased action and resources to control the disease,
> which kills one quarter of the 8 million people infected globally each
year.
>
> "TB drug resistance is an urgent public health issue for countries from
the former Soviet Union," the Director of the
> Geneva-based World Health Organization
(<"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2004/pr17/en/">WHO) Stop TB
Department, Mario
> Raviglione, said. "It is in the interest of every country to support rapid
scale-up of TB control if we are to overcome MDR-TB."
>
> A new <"http://www.who.int/gtb/">report released today confirms
geographical concentrations of TB drug resistance across the
> Commonwealth of Independent States. Six out of the top 10 global hotspots
are Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, parts of the
> Russian Federation and Uzbekistan, with drug resistance in new patients as
high as 14 per cent. China, Ecuador, Israel and South
> Africa are also identified as key areas.
>
> WHO's leading infectious disease experts estimate there are 300,000 new
cases per year of MDR-TB worldwide. New evidence proves
> that drug resistant strains are becoming more intractable, and
unresponsive to current treatments, with 79 per cent of MDR-TB
> cases classified as "super strains" resistant to at least three of the
four main drugs used to cure TB.
>
> Resistant to the two most commonly used medicines, Isoniazid and
Rifampicin, MDR-TB -- without costly interventions -- is
> untreatable and in most cases fatal. Though curing normal TB is cheap and
effective - a six-month course of medicines costs $10 -
> treating MDR-TB is 100 times more expensive, according to WHO. Even then a
cure is not guaranteed. With no effective vaccine,
> everyone is vulnerable to infection simply by breathing in a droplet
>
> The report "the most effective strategy to prevent the emergence of drug
resistance is through implementation of the DOTS" - the
> internationally agreed treatment strategy designed to ensure patients take
their medicines properly. It has proven effective in
> preventing drug resistance.
>
> Highest prevalence of MDR-TB coincides with one of the world's fastest
growing HIV infection rates in Eastern Europe and Central
> Asia. Recently the UN Development Programme (UNDP) reported there are more
than 1.5 million people with the virus in the region,
> compared to just 30 000 in 1995. People whose immune systems are
compromised with HIV are highly susceptible to contracting all
> forms of TB.