Map Credit - Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring in Europe 2014
# 8386
Next Monday (March 24th) is World TB Day, and so for the next couple of weeks we can expect to see a flurry of reports and assessments released on the global battle against this insidious disease. The ECDC describes this year’s campaign:
2014 theme: MDR TB and MDR TB treatment outcomes
For World TB Day 2014, ECDC is focusing on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB), particularly on MDR TB treatment and treatment outcomes.
In the EU/EEA, the treatment success rates of MDR TB patients have remained stable but at a very low level: only one in every three (34%) patients in the reporting EU/EEA countries finishes MDR TB treatment successfully. More than half die, fail treatment or default (stop taking treatment).
MDR and XDR TB patients face much longer treatment, take more drugs, suffer from more side effects and treatment costs are five times higher compared to drug-susceptible TB. Only complete and successful tuberculosis treatment helps to prevent disease transmission and development of resistant strains that lead to the development of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB), which is almost impossible to treat.
Merely 7 of the 21 countries reporting have maintained a mean five-year decline in MDR notification rates and the overall MDR TB treatment success rate remains far below the 70% target defined by the Framework Action Plan to Fight Tuberculosis in the European Union.
Why is MDR TB still a public health concern?
- TB is slowly declining but MDR and XDR TB pose a serious challenge in the attempt to eliminate TB across Europe, even though the number of reported MDR TB cases seem to decline slowly.
- In EU, only 1 in every 3 MDR TB patients has a successful treatment outcome; more than half either die, fail treatment or default (stop taking treatment). XDR TB has even worse treatment outcomes: only 1 in 4 patients finishes treatment successfully
- By not diagnosing and not treating patients with MDR TB early and successfully, we put their live at risk and pave the way for XDR TB
- Only complete and successful tuberculosis treatment helps to prevent disease transmission and development of resistant strains
Today the ECDC and the World Health Organization released an extensive (15mb, 218 pg) PDF report on the TB situation in Europe entitled:
Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring in Europe 2014
18 Mar 2014
Available as PDF in the following languages
Abstract
The sixth report launched jointly by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) indicates that, despite notable progress in the past decade, tuberculosis (TB) is still a public health concern in many countries across Europe. Of particular concern are the high rates of multidrug resistant (MDR) TB outside the European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA). Meanwhile EU/EEA countries themselves have a significant number of TB cases among vulnerable population groups, such as people of foreign origin and prisoners.
An assessment of progress towards TB elimination for the four epidemiological indicators and eight core indicators defined in the report ‘Progressing towards TB elimination: A follow-up to the Framework Action Plan to Fight Tuberculosis in the European Union’ showed that none of the core indicators was achieved at EU/EEA level.
While progress has been made in reducing the overall incidence of Tuberculosis in Europe over the past decade, as the following press release indicates, the rise in MDR and XDR TB – and their dismal treatment outcomes - has tempered any celebrations:
Tuberculosis cases down by 6% but only 1 in 3 MDR TB patients finishes treatment successfully
18 Mar 2014
In 2012, 68 423 cases of tuberculosis (TB) were reported in 29 EU/EEA countries according to new data published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the WHO Regional Office for Europe ahead of World Tuberculosis Day. This results in a notification rate of 13.5 per 100 000 population and constitutes a 6% decrease compared to 2011 (72 000 cases reported), confirming the average annual decline of 5% since 2008.
The surveillance data show that the majority of EU/EEA countries report sustained low levels of TB, which means fewer than 20 TB cases per 100 000 population. In 19 of them, the number of tuberculosis patients decreased. Rates were below 10 per 100 000 population in 18 countries and below 20 in 23 countries.
Overall, the EU/EEA countries have been – and still are – successful in the fight against TB and met the target of an average five-year decline. However, they have not yet met the set targets for successful treatment of the multidrug-resistant form of tuberculosis, MDR TB.
