Drug-Resistant TB Spreading Faster Than Experts Feared

Cybergal · Feb 27, 2008

Drug-Resistant TB Spreading Faster Than Experts Feared

2/27/08

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading even faster than medical experts had feared, the World Health Organization warned in report issued Tuesday. The rate of TB patients infected with the drug-resistant strain topped 20 percent in some countries, the highest ever recorded, the U.N. agency said.

"Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to see rates like this," said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of WHO's "Stop TB" department. "This demonstrates what happens when you keep making mistakes in TB treatment."

Though the report is the largest survey of drug-resistant TB, based on information collected between 2002 and 2006, there are still major gaps: Data were only available from about half of the world's countries.

In Africa, where experts are particularly worried about a lethal collision between TB and AIDS, only six countries provided information.
"We really don't know what the situation is in Africa," Raviglione said. "If multi-drug resistant TB has penetrated Africa and coincides with AIDS, there's bound to be a disaster."

Raviglione said it was likely that patients - and even entire outbreaks of drug-resistant TB - were being missed.
Experts also worry about the spread of XDR-TB, or extensively drug-resistant TB, a strain virtually untreatable in poor countries. When an XDR-TB outbreak was identified in AIDS patients in South Africa in 2006, it killed nearly every patient within weeks. WHO's report said XDR-TB has now been found in 45 countries.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332950,00.html
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liltruck · Feb 28, 2008

Use Hot water and Bleach with Soap, when washing hands and cleaning utensils . Best combat out there over all the anit-bacterial stuff.

I have gotten to the point anymore ,in a public place my shirt sleeve or tissue handles a door knob. I order water in a plastic cup instead of the glasses at the cafe's.

Cybergal said: ↑

Drug-Resistant TB Spreading Faster Than Experts Feared

2/27/08
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