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Drug-resistant TB poses killer threat to thousands in Europe
Source: Agencies |
September 15, 2011, Thursday
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MULTIDRUG-RESISTANT and extensively drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis are spreading at an alarming rate in Europe and will kill thousands unless health authorities halt the pandemic, the World Health Organization warned yesterday.
Launching a new regional plan to find, diagnose and treat cases of the infectious disease more effectively, the WHO's European director warned that complacency had allowed a resurgence of TB and failure to tackle it now would mean huge human and economic costs in the future.
"TB is an old disease that never went away, and now it is evolving with a vengeance," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO's regional director for Europe.
Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, said: "The numbers are scary."
TB is a global pandemic that kills around 1.7 million people a year. The infection is caused by the bacterium myco-bacterium tuberculosis and destroys patients' lung tissue, causing them to cough up the bacteria, which then spreads through the air and can be inhaled by others. Spitting on the ground also spreads the disease.
Cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) - where the infections are resistant to first-line and then second-line antibiotic treatments - are spreading fast, with about 440,000 new patients around the world annually.
According to the WHO and Stop TB, 15 of the 27 countries with the highest MDR-TB burden are in the WHO's European region, which encompasses 53 countries in Europe and central Asia.
More than 80,000 MDR-TB cases occur in the region each year - almost a fifth of the world's total. The WHO said precise figures for XDR-TB are not available because most countries lack the facilities to diagnose it, but officially reported cases of XDR-TB increased six-fold between 2008 and 2009.
Rates are highest in eastern Europe and Central Asia, but many countries in western Europe have increasing rates of TB and drug-resistant TB, Ditiu said. The UK capital, London, has the highest TB rate of any capital city in western Europe, with 3,500 cases a year.
Treating even normal TB is a long and unpleasant process, with patients needing to take a combination of powerful antibiotics for six months. Many fail to complete the course of medicines, a factor which has fueled the rise in drug-resistant forms of the disease.
Launching a new regional plan to find, diagnose and treat cases of the infectious disease more effectively, the WHO's European director warned that complacency had allowed a resurgence of TB and failure to tackle it now would mean huge human and economic costs in the future.
"TB is an old disease that never went away, and now it is evolving with a vengeance," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO's regional director for Europe.
Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, said: "The numbers are scary."
TB is a global pandemic that kills around 1.7 million people a year. The infection is caused by the bacterium myco-bacterium tuberculosis and destroys patients' lung tissue, causing them to cough up the bacteria, which then spreads through the air and can be inhaled by others. Spitting on the ground also spreads the disease.
Cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) - where the infections are resistant to first-line and then second-line antibiotic treatments - are spreading fast, with about 440,000 new patients around the world annually.
According to the WHO and Stop TB, 15 of the 27 countries with the highest MDR-TB burden are in the WHO's European region, which encompasses 53 countries in Europe and central Asia.
More than 80,000 MDR-TB cases occur in the region each year - almost a fifth of the world's total. The WHO said precise figures for XDR-TB are not available because most countries lack the facilities to diagnose it, but officially reported cases of XDR-TB increased six-fold between 2008 and 2009.
Rates are highest in eastern Europe and Central Asia, but many countries in western Europe have increasing rates of TB and drug-resistant TB, Ditiu said. The UK capital, London, has the highest TB rate of any capital city in western Europe, with 3,500 cases a year.
Treating even normal TB is a long and unpleasant process, with patients needing to take a combination of powerful antibiotics for six months. Many fail to complete the course of medicines, a factor which has fueled the rise in drug-resistant forms of the disease.
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