* Eight country study finds high rates of drug resistance
* Resistant strains more costly to treat, often more fatal
* Almost 9 million people a year get TB, 1.4 million die
By Kate Kelland
LONDON, Aug 30 (Reuters) – Scientists have found alarming
levels of the lung disease tuberculosis in Africa, Asia, Europe
and Latin America that are resistant to up to four powerful
antibiotic drugs.
In a large international study published in the Lancet
medical journal on Thursday, researchers found rates of both
multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant
TB (XDR-TB) were higher than previously thought and were
threatening global efforts to curb the spread of the disease.
“Most international recommendations for TB control have been
developed for MDR-TB prevalence of up to around 5 percent. Yet
now we face prevalence up to 10 times higher in some places,
where almost half of the patients … are transmitting MDR
strains,” Sven Hoffner of the Swedish Institute for Communicable
Disease Control, said in a commentary on the study.
TB is already a worldwide pandemic that in 2010 infected 8.8
million people and killed 1.4 million of them.
Drug-resistant TB is more difficult and costly than normal
TB to treat, and is more often fatal.
Continued…
