Tuberculosis patients in parts of Eastern Europe and Central
Asia are 10 times more likely to have multidrug-resistant TB than
in the rest of the world, according to a World Health Organization
(WHO) report released yesterday.
China was also identified in the report as one of the key areas
for the deadly infectious disease.
The report, which surveys 77 countries and covers one-fifth of
the world's population, includes four locations in China.
Two of the four provinces surveyed were found to have a "very
high" percentage of multidrug-resistant TB patients, said the
report's lead author Dr. Mohamed Aziz.
Around one out of every 10 new patients tested positive for
multidrug-resistant TB in northeast China's Liaoning Province, and
eight in every 100 new patients in central China's Henan Province
are resistant to more than two important TB drugs.
But the situation is better in central China's Hubei Province
and Hong Kong, said Aziz in a telephone interview with China
Daily.
Only 0.8 percent of TB patients are drug resistant in Hong Kong,
a percentage point lower than average, and 2.1 percent are drug
resistant in Hubei, which shows the situation is "within control,"
said Aziz.
Multidrug-resistant TB is fatal in more cases because it is
harder to cure. Patients infected with this strain must take
second-line drugs that are much more expensive and carry more side
effects. Longer treatments are also required.
Once TB patients develop a drug-resistant strain of the illness
owing to inconsistent treatment, wrong treatment regimens or
unreliable drug supply, they can spread it to others, said
Aziz.
The WHO reports that tuberculosis kills approximately 2 million
people each year. The breakdown in health services, the spread of
HIV/AIDS and the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB are
contributing to the worsening impact of this disease.
It is estimated that between 2002 and 2020, approximately 1
billion people will be infected, over 150 million people will get
sick and 36 million will die of TB if controls are not
strengthened.
Aziz stated that it is in the interest of every country to
support a rapid increase in TB control.
"Passport control will not halt drug resistance; investment in
global TB prevention will," said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of
the WHO's Stop TB Department.
Aziz indicated that China is doing well in expanding its
surveillance of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.
Now China's health administration and the WHO are planning to
carry out a joint national TB project.
A WHO expert said surveys will be carried out in more provinces,
and multidrug-resistant TB patients found in new surveys will be
offered treatment with second-line drugs. However, he added that it
has not yet been decided who will pay for the treatment.
Thanks to the WHO's initiatives, the cost of supplying these
medicines has fallen dramatically as pharmaceutical companies have
agreed to support fully the fight to eradicate drug-resistant
TB.
(China Daily March 17, 2004)