World Health Organisation: New Rapid Tests for Multi-drug Resistant Tb
A new drive along with funding to stop the disease spreading around the world was announced yesterday
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 Organization yesterday.
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, with Azerbaijan in first place - 22.3% of TB cases are multi-drug resistant. 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. Out of 53 people diagnosed with XDR-TB in the South African cluster 52 died. All were also HIV-infected. There have been cases of XDR-TB in 45 countries, including Britain, and WHO says it threatens to derail 10 years of progress on TB control and HIV management.The two-pronged plan is the joint achievement of the WHO, the Stop TB Partnership, UNITAID (an international drugs purchasing facility set up to help developing countries) and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics.
Rapid diagnosis of drug-resistant TB is vital, because infectious patients will inevitably spread the disease while they are waiting for the test result. A large field trial in a busy South African hospital has established that molecular screening can be used in developing countries.
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, with Azerbaijan in first place - 22.3% of TB cases are multi-drug resistant. 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. Out of 53 people diagnosed with XDR-TB in the South African cluster 52 died. All were also HIV-infected. There have been cases of XDR-TB in 45 countries, including Britain, and WHO says it threatens to derail 10 years of progress on TB control and HIV management.The two-pronged plan is the joint achievement of the WHO, the Stop TB Partnership, UNITAID (an international drugs purchasing facility set up to help developing countries) and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics.
Rapid diagnosis of drug-resistant TB is vital, because infectious patients will inevitably spread the disease while they are waiting for the test result. A large field trial in a busy South African hospital has established that molecular screening can be used in developing countries.
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