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WHO: Act now or risk a fatal TB outbreak

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-02 09:17

Countries most at risk from a fast-spreading, drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis (TB) must take immediate action to prevent potential fatal outbreaks, warned the World Health Organization (WHO) Wednesday.

Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said at the start of a three-day meeting in Beijing to discuss control of the disease that the 27 worst hit nations, including India, Vietnam, Pakistan and Bulgaria, must act now to defuse a medical "timebomb".

Speaking at the event, jointly organized by the WHO, China's Ministry of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she warned the world was now under threat from a multiple drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), as well as an extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).

"Call it what you may, a timebomb or a powder keg, but any way you look at it this is a potentially explosive situation," she said.

Related readings:  Bill Gates joins China's TB control efforts  Health ministers to gather in Beijing to combat TB  TB on rise in Asia, says WHO

TB is an ancient disease passed on by micro-bacteria in the air. There were an estimated 9.27 million cases across the globe in 2007, an increase from 8.3 million cases in 2000 and 6.6 million cases in 1990, said a new WHO report.

Although usually curable, it has evolved into untreatable strains, with more than 500,000 cases of MDR-TB found during 2007 along with reports of XDR-TB in 55 countries.

"This is the true alarm bell. This tells us resistant strains are now circulating in the general population, spreading widely and largely silently in a growing pool of latent infection," Chan said.

Preventing and managing drug-resistant TB is a global health imperative, she said. "Substandard treatment of regular TB drives the development of MDR-TB. In turn, substandard treatment of MDR-TB drives the development of XDR-TB."

And with the costs of treating MDR-TB almost 200 times that for regular TB, she added that the best way to fight the disease "is through a policy that strives for universal, equitable and affordable health coverage".

Vice-Premier Li Keqiang said at the meeting that China had made significant steps in TB control, while Minister of Health Chen Zhu Wednesday told China Daily: "The government invested 1 billion yuan ($150 million) to control and prevent TB last year."

Of the 9 million-plus new TB cases reported globally every year, China accounts for 1.3 million. However, its death rate is relatively low, with only 130,000 dying in China compared to the 1.8 million killed by the disease worldwide.