(Reuters)
- Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB)
are spreading at an alarming rate in News (Updated
September 18, 2011)
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(Reuters)
- Multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB)
are spreading at an alarming rate in
Launching a new regional
plan to find, diagnose and treat cases of the airborne infectious disease more
effectively, the WHO's European director warned that complacency had allowed a
resurgence of TB and failure to tackle it now would mean huge human and economic
costs in the future.
"TB is an old disease
that never went away, and now it is evolving with a vengeance," said
Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO's Regional Director for
"The numbers are
scary," Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership told a
news conference in
TB is currently a
worldwide pandemic that kills around 1.7 million people a year. The infection is
caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and destroys patients' lung
tissue, causing them to cough up the bacteria, which then spreads through the
air and can be inhaled by others.
Cases of multidrug-resistant
(MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) -- where the infections are
resistant to first-line and then second-line antibiotic treatments -- are
spreading fast, with about 440,000 new patients every year around the world.
According to the WHO and
Stop TB, 15 of the 27 countries with the highest burden of MDR-TB are in the
WHO's European region, which includes 53 countries in Europe and
More than 80,000 MDR-TB
cases occur in the region each year -- almost a fifth of the world's total. The
WHO said precise figures for XDR-TB are not available because most countries
lack the facilities to diagnose it, but officially reported cases of XDR-TB
increased six-fold between 2008 and 2009.
Rates are highest in
eastern Europe and
Treating even normal TB is
a long and unpleasant process, with patients needing to take a combination of
powerful antibiotics for 6 months. Many patients fail to correctly complete the
course of medicines, a factor which has fueled a rise in drug-resistant forms of
the disease.
Treatment regimes for MDR-TB
and XDR-TB can stretch into two or more years, costing up to $16,000 in drugs
alone and up to $200,000 to $300,000 per patient if isolation hospital costs,
medical care and other resources are taken into account.
Experts say around 7
percent of patients with straightforward TB die, and that death rate rises to
around 50 percent of patients with drug-resistant forms.
The WHO's action plan for
tackling tuberculosis emphasizes the need for doctors and patients to be more
aware of the disease and its symptoms, to diagnose and treat cases promptly with
the right drugs, and follow patients up over many months or years to ensure they
take their medications.
If that doesn't happen
"not only are these people quietly and painfully dying, they are also
spreading the disease," Ditiu said.
The WHO said that if the
plan is fully implemented -- at an estimated cost of $5 billion -- 127,000
people will be successfully treated for drug-resistant TB and 120,000 deaths
will be averted by 2015.
The cost would also be
recouped, since 250 000 MDR-TB and 13,000 XDR-TB cases will be prevented, saving
$7 billion in averted treatment costs, the WHO said. It added that prevention of
premature deaths among TB patients would add to economic productivity in the
region and generate an extra $5 billion.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland)
16 Sep 2011
Source: Content partner //
IRIN
DADAAB, 16 September
2011 - At Ifo trading centre, a short distance from northeastern Kenya's
Dadaab refugee complex, Hawa*, a teenage girl, sits in a dark room on an old
jerry can holding a small bunch of fresh khat, a mild stimulant, ostensibly for
sale.
But Hawa is not selling
khat; she is selling sex. The kiosk is a convenient way for her to meet clients.
"I don't live here
and I don't sell miraa [a local name for khat]. This is where my friends and I
meet men. We sell them sex and they give us some little money to survive,"
the 17-year-old told IRIN/PlusNews.
Like most of the residents
of Dadaab, Hawa is a refugee who escaped conflict in her native
"If anybody knew that
we were [selling sex], they would scald us with hot water. In our culture, that
is punishable by death," she said. "When a customer comes, we take him
in as if he is going to choose the best miraa, then we negotiate and have sex.
We charge them about 200
With close to 470,000
residents, Dadaab is bursting at the seams. The local trading centres are busy
hubs for small business owners and truck drivers delivering trade goods, food
and other humanitarian commodities.
"Many of our
customers are people who drive these trucks that bring goods here from the other
urban centres. We also get clients from the villages around here," Hawa
said. "When they arrive, our [pimps], who mostly work as loaders, ask them
if they are interested in sex and they bring them here."
Hawa says she usually
leaves the decision on condom use to her clients, and has never been for an HIV
test.
The HIV prevalence in
"Low risk", not
"no risk"
"Knowledge about HIV
and AIDS is high here - about 90 percent - but the use of prevention methods
like condoms is low and not many people turn up for tests. So we encourage them
to turn up for tests and promote prevention methods like condoms to ensure they
are safe," said Mohamed Ibrahim, a peer counsellor working at a youth
centre in the camp. "The fact that HIV prevalence is low doesn't mean you
say let us rest and forget about HIV."
A 2010 HIV Behavioural
Surveillance Survey [ http://www.unhcr.org/4d231ca09.pdf ] conducted by the UN
Refugee Agency and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Dadaab
found that 7 percent of male respondents and 3 percent of female respondents
reported symptoms of a sexually transmitted infection - which increases
susceptibility to acquiring and transmitting HIV - in the past year.
The BSS found that 3
percent of sexually active respondents reported transactional sex for money,
gifts or favours.
Just 12 percent of
sexually active survey participants reported ever using a condom, dropping to 5
percent for the female condom, and only 22 percent of respondents had
comprehensive knowledge about HIV.
"HIV programmes
should focus on increasing awareness and consistent condom use," the
authors noted. "Interventions focusing on condom negotiation skills may
help individuals convince reluctant partners."
Initiatives to help
sensitize the youth on HIV exist in Dadaab; at one youth centre within the
trading centre, young men and girls read materials and watch educational videos
on the subject.
Liban Rashid, a young
Somali man working with the NGO Film Aid International in Dadaab, has become
convinced of the value of condom use in protecting sex workers and the general
population from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
"Sex work is a
business here for many young girls and women because they have to get a little
money," he said. "But they need to be put on the safe side by being
given education on the need to use condoms if they can't leave the
practice."
*Not her real name
ko/kr/mw
(AFP) – 12 September,
2011
AHMEDABAD,
The infected children,
aged between five to 10 years, suffer from thalassaemia, a rare genetic disorder
that requires regular transfusions.
Parents said their
children received fresh blood at a public hospital in Junagadh district in the
western state of Gujarat, 315 kilometres (195 miles) from the city of
"We have initiated an
inquiry into the case. This is a very serious matter," the state's
principal health secretary Rajesh Kishore told AFP without giving further
details.
All the 23 children had
received free blood transfusions between January and August, reports said.
Earlier,
He also said some
pre-transfusion tests at another state-run hospital had found that the children
already had been infected with HIV.
The Indian government
estimates that about 2.5 million Indians are living with HIV.
Copyright © 2011 AFP.