PHA-Exchange> UN HEALTH TASK FORCE OUTLINES STEPS TO FIGHT DRUG-RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS

[Claudio]

From: "Vern Weitzel" <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au>
From: UNNews at un.org

UN HEALTH TASK FORCE OUTLINES STEPS TO FIGHT DRUG-RESISTANT TUBERCULOSIS
New York, Oct 17 2006  2:00PM
With the emergence of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) 
posing a serious threat to
public health, particularly when associated with HIV, the United Nations 
health agency today called
on countries to immediately strengthen their control of the disease.

Announcing the results of last week’s first meeting of its Global Task Force 
on XDR-TB, the UN World
Health Organization 
(<"http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2006/np29/en/index.html">WHO) 
also
outlined plans to help mobilize teams that can respond to requests for 
technical assistance from
countries and be deployed at short notice to XDR-TB risk areas.

“It is critical that urgent steps are taken to address XDR-TB, especially in 
areas of high HIV
prevalence,” WHO Acting Director-General Anders Nordström told the Task 
Force at its meeting in
Geneva on 9 and 10 October. “At the same time we should not lose sight of 
the need to make
long-standing improvements to strengthen TB control, and build the necessary 
capacity in health
services to respond to drug-resistant tuberculosis.”

The Task Force also made specific recommendations on drug-resistant TB 
surveillance methods and
laboratory capacity measures; implementing infection control measures to 
protect patients, health
care workers and visitors, particularly those who are HIV infected; and 
access to second-line
anti-TB and antiretroviral drugs for countries.

It also called for information-sharing strategies related to XDR-TB 
prevention, control, and
treatment, including co-management with antiretroviral therapy; and research 
and development of new
TB drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests.

WHO and Task Force members will now coordinate with national and 
international partners involved in
TB, as well as HIV prevention, care and treatment, to take the 
recommendations forward. They will
also develop a plan that identifies the resources required to implement 
these outcomes and the
overall emergency response.

Drug-resistant TB has emerged as an increasing threat to TB control but a 
WHO/United States Centres
for Disease Control and Prevention study published earlier this year 
documented for the first time
cases of tuberculosis that were extensively resistant to current drug 
treatments. XDR-TB was
identified in all regions of the world, though it is still thought to be 
relatively uncommon.

Last month concerns were heightened by reports from KwaZulu-Natal province 
in South Africa of high
mortality rates in HIV-positive people with XDR-TB, leading to warnings that 
XDR-TB could seriously
threaten the considerable progress being made in countries on TB control and 
the scaling up of
universal access to HIV treatment and prevention.