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MDR-TB (Multi-drug Resistant Tuberculosis) and XDR-TB (Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis) are both on the rise worldwide, and pose a significant threat to the world’s population.
This week the health Ministers from 27 countries are in Beijing, China for a high level Ministerial conference on the growing threat of M/XDR-TB.
Over the past few years the number of these drug resistant TB cases has grown swiftly, and the countries with the highest burden of the disease are listed by the WHO (World Health Organization) as:
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Moldova, Myanmar, Nigeria, Philippines, Russian Federation, Pakistan, South Africa, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam.
If the problems of M/XDR-TB in places like Myanmar and Uzbekistan seem far removed from your life, consider this:
In our highly mobile global society, infectious diseases know no borders.
A problem in Kyrgyzstan today can easily become a problem in London, or New York City tomorrow.
According to the AP report on today’s conference, Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO had this to say:
"Call it what you may — a time bomb or a powder keg," Chan said at the opening of a three-day meeting on drug-resistant TB in Beijing. "Any way you look at it, this is a potentially explosive situation."
First some coverage of the meeting in Beijing, then some additional TB resources for you to explore.
WHO calls for "urgent action" against global epidemic of drug-resistant TB
www.chinaview.cn
2009-04-01 11:51:54
BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries where tuberculosis (TB) is prevalent to take urgent action to curb the spread of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant (M/XDR-TB) forms of the disease.
Addressing a meeting here Wednesday, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the world faced a "precarious situation" due to the emergence and spread of drug-resistant TB.
"The situation is already alarming, and it is poised to grow much worse, very quickly," she told health ministers and officials from more than 30 countries and regions, who gathered at the Ministerial Meeting of High M/XDR-TB Burden Countries, organized by WHO.
Although TB is preventable and treatable, when the TB bacillus becomes resistant to the two most powerful first-line anti-TB drugs, the disease develops into the multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).
The more serious XDR-TB, a sub-strain of MDR-TB that developed from the highly drug-resistant strains, has been reported in more than 50 countries -- mainly in Asia, Africa and Europe, according to the WHO.
Chan said WHO reports on drug-resistant TB had documented the highest levels of multidrug resistance ever recorded in the general population.
The organization estimated that more than 500,000 new cases of MDR-TB occurred during 2007.
"If MDR-TB is not vigorously addressed, it stands to replace the mainly drug-susceptible strains currently responsible for 95 percent of the world's TB cases," she said.
About 1.7 million people die from TB annually, according to the WHO, which blamed improper use of drugs and mismanagement of treatment for causing multi-drug resistance.
Chan urged that high priority be given to the epidemic "because national TB programs cannot, by themselves, manage these new threats."
She said the cost of treating MDR-TB can be as much as 200 times higher than normal TB.
As a result of the global economic downturn, "we need to look very carefully at areas of public health where any lapse in current efforts will bring us much a bigger and heavier bill very soon.
"TB control is a prime example," she said.
The WHO website has this information about the meeting in Beijing, along with a number of resource materials.
A ministerial meeting of high M/XDR-TB burden countries
Beijing, China, 1-3 April 2009Ministers from high M/XDR-TB burden countries1 will meet in Beijing, China, on 1-3 April 2009, to urgently address the alarming threat of MDR-TB. Organized by the World Health Organization, together with the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this ministerial meeting, aims:
- to build consensus and political commitment globally and in high M/XDR-TB burden countries; and
- to act immediately to scale up the prevention and management of MDR-TB and start developing 5-year national strategic plans for MDR-TB, embedded within national TB and health sector plans.
It is expected that this will be reflected in a Call for Action on M/XDR-TB to help strengthen health agendas and ensure that urgent and necessary commitments for actions and funding are made to prevent this impending epidemic. A preceding call for action by community representatives coming out of the Stop TB Partners Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in March 2009, will also be presented in Beijing.
:: Download the agenda [pdf 256kb]
:: Download the pamphlet [pdf 253kb]Read more about
More information
:: Key bottlenecks in M/XDR-TB control and patient care
:: M/XDR-TB country profiles
:: M/XDR-TB: challenges, management and surveillance
