Atlantic Examines Drug-Resistant TB Control Worldwide
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Source: Kaiser Global Health Policy Report
The Atlantic examines the emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis around the world, with a look at the situation in South Africa. “[T]he resurgence of tuberculosis is not limited to South Africa. India and China have the largest numbers of tuberculosis cases, and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been found in nearly every country, with XDR [extensively drug resistant]-TB in at least 57 countries,” according to the article.
Treatment for drug-resistant strains of TB can last “up to two years and is 200 to 1,000 times more expensive than regular TB drugs,” according to the Atlantic. “Even with treatment, multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis kills 30 percent of those infected, while XDR-TB kills roughly 60 percent. Unless the world gets ahead of the epidemic, drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis may not only kill hundreds of thousands, but also render moot global efforts to roll out HIV/AIDS antiretrovirals,” the magazine writes.
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