TB on rise in Asia, says WHO

World health chiefs stressed yesterday the urgent need for countries to strengthen their health systems to tackle the spread of tuberculosis amid the growing threat of drug-resistant TB.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Pieter van Maaren said there were 112,000 new cases of drug-resistant TB in China alone in 2007 and figures for 2008 were likely to be similar.

Van Maaren, WHO's Western Pacific regional advisor for TB, said the Philippines is the second hardest-hit country in the region, with up to 6,000 new cases of resistant TB a year.