Underestimating a killer

Cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are under-diagnosed around the world and even among those who have been diagnosed, only a fraction are being treated, a Global Fund official said on Monday.

"The Global Fund is funding about 25,000 to 30,000 patients but the estimated total number of cases is 500,000," Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund's effort to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, told an HIV/AIDS conference.

"So we are very far off. It is a dangerous epidemic that is spreading," he told the conference in Bali. "There is an underdiagnosis of MDR-TB."