Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Drug-resistant TB is major concern
By Gillian Wong |
March 24, 2009, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MORE money and better science are urgently needed to rein in new strains of tuberculosis that is tough or nearly impossible to treat, the World Health Organization announced yesterday in China, where the disease has long been a leading killer.
The WHO is releasing its annual update on tuberculosis today, which is also World TB Day, an event meant to raise awareness of the disease that, despite being one of the world's oldest killers, still claims the lives of more than 1.5 million people every year. About 9 million people are infected, mostly in Africa and Asia.
"Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a growing global public health threat. We are at a turning point. We need to address it," Dr Cornelia Hennig, the WHO's TB program coordinator for China, said at a news briefing in Beijing.
The report comes a week before the start of an international conference in Beijing focusing on ways to deal with drug-resistant TB strains. India, China and Russia - the three countries with the world's highest number of drug-resistant TB cases - will participate.
Hennig said the spread of drug-resistant TB strains can be prevented by spending more on TB control programs and coming up with better medical tests and drugs.
Drug resistance develops when patients are not treated properly or interrupt their treatment after they start feeling better, giving bacteria an opportunity to develop a defense against the medicines.
Multidrug-resistant TB, or MDR-TB, doesn't respond to at least two of the best anti-TB drugs. Extensively drug-resistant TB, known as XDR-TB, is virtually untreatable by remaining options.
"Our treatment options are very, very restricted ... We almost have no weapon to treat XDR-TB," Hennig said. "Recognition that XDR is a threat is becoming more and more the message."
In 2007, there were an estimated 511,000 cases of MDR-TB in the world, resulting in more than 130,000 deaths, Hennig said, while about 30,000 people likely died from XDR-TB out of 50,000 cases.
In China, tuberculosis was the deadliest infectious disease for many years until last year, when AIDS became the top killer for the first time.
The WHO is releasing its annual update on tuberculosis today, which is also World TB Day, an event meant to raise awareness of the disease that, despite being one of the world's oldest killers, still claims the lives of more than 1.5 million people every year. About 9 million people are infected, mostly in Africa and Asia.
"Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a growing global public health threat. We are at a turning point. We need to address it," Dr Cornelia Hennig, the WHO's TB program coordinator for China, said at a news briefing in Beijing.
The report comes a week before the start of an international conference in Beijing focusing on ways to deal with drug-resistant TB strains. India, China and Russia - the three countries with the world's highest number of drug-resistant TB cases - will participate.
Hennig said the spread of drug-resistant TB strains can be prevented by spending more on TB control programs and coming up with better medical tests and drugs.
Drug resistance develops when patients are not treated properly or interrupt their treatment after they start feeling better, giving bacteria an opportunity to develop a defense against the medicines.
Multidrug-resistant TB, or MDR-TB, doesn't respond to at least two of the best anti-TB drugs. Extensively drug-resistant TB, known as XDR-TB, is virtually untreatable by remaining options.
"Our treatment options are very, very restricted ... We almost have no weapon to treat XDR-TB," Hennig said. "Recognition that XDR is a threat is becoming more and more the message."
In 2007, there were an estimated 511,000 cases of MDR-TB in the world, resulting in more than 130,000 deaths, Hennig said, while about 30,000 people likely died from XDR-TB out of 50,000 cases.
In China, tuberculosis was the deadliest infectious disease for many years until last year, when AIDS became the top killer for the first time.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
