WHO Warns of 'Alarming Rise' in European TB

Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR TB) is spreading at an “alarming rate” in Europe, and western European nations should especially take notice, according to the World Health Organization. On Wednesday, WHO released its 2011-15 action plan for preventing 263,000 cases of MDR TB and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB).

WHO’s European Region includes nine countries leading the world in rates of drug-resistance among new TB diagnoses, and six with the highest rates of MDR TB among currently treated patients, the agency said.

“MDR TB in London doubled between 2005 and 2009, and now represents nearly 2 percent of all cases,” WHO said. “Treating MDR TB patients takes up to two years, using second-line drugs and/or surgery. Because some patients’ circumstances do not facilitate treatment, the success rate for MDR TB patients in some western European countries is under half that of countries in eastern Europe and central Asia. In western Europe, treatment fails in 23 percent of patients; 26 percent are lost in follow-up; 19 percent die; and just 32 percent are successfully treated,” WHO said. “In contrast, the success rate in eastern Europe and central Asia is estimated to be 65 percent.”

The action plan calls for:

*cutting by 20 percent the proportion of MDR TB cases among previously treated patients;

*diagnosing at least 85 percent of estimated MDR TB cases; and

*successfully treating at least 75 percent of confirmed MDR TB patients.

“TB is an old disease that never went away,” said Zsuzsanna Jakob, WHO’s regional director for Europe. “Now it is evolving with a vengeance and we have to find new weapons to fight it.”

Jakob pledged WHO will provide technical assistance for member states committed to the action plan.

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