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Data in a World Health Organization
report released October 17 states that drug-resistant TB is going largely
undetected in many countries, undermining progress made against the disease
over the past decade. Those falling ill with TB have been declining steadily
for nearly a decade after a surge in the 1990s, with a 2.2 percent drop
globally in 2011. Approximately 8.7 million individuals became ill with TB, and
there were 1.4 million fatalities from the disease in 2011, including 430,000
individuals who were co-infected with HIV, making them more susceptible to TB
infection.
The WHO estimates that only 19
percent of those infected with forms of TB that are resistant to multiple TB
drugs are being diagnosed, citing a lack of funding and technology for
appropriate diagnostic testing in the countries where the drug resistance is
flourishing. According to Mario Raviglione, director of WHO’s Stop TB
Department, patients in many countries are not tested fully for
multidrug-resistant TB, so it is difficult to know how widespread that form of
the disease is. In 2011, fewer than 60,000 new cases of MDR-TB infection were
reported, mostly in Europe and Africa. But that is only 19 percent of an
estimated 310,000 individuals diagnosed with TB last year that was actually a
drug-resistant form. There are about 650,000 cases of MDR-TB globally.
India, China, Russia, and South
Africa account for nearly two thirds of all MDR-TB cases, reports Dr.
Raviglione, and detection, diagnosis, and treatment of these types of cases
needs to be accelerated. The drug resistance also appears to be deepening, with
84 countries now reporting cases of more extensive drug-resistant TB— a form
that is resistant to at least four core TB drugs. In addition, examples of an
even more resistant form of TB that resists all traditional treatment have been
reported in India.
New technologies include a rapid
molecular test that can diagnose TB and a common form of resistance in 100
minutes. WHO says 11 new or repurposed TB drugs are currently in clinical
trials and offer a new line of attack against drug resistance, possibly shortening
treatment time as well. WHO has formed a task force to determine how to use the
new drugs without creating further drug resistance in the future.
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dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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