WHO warns drug-resistant tuberculosis poses threat to public health

Jul 21, 2008, 8:00 GMT

Manila - Highly lethal, drug-resistant tuberculosis could pose a threat to global public health security if Asian nations fail to combat the spread of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Monday.

The health body said drug-resistant tuberculosis raised the risk of an epidemic that would be costly and complex to control as drugs to treat those strains were about 100 times more costly than the regimen for normal tuberculosis.

It added that each untreated patient could infect five to 10 people a year.

Currently, only 1 per cent of an estimated 150,000 people with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in East Asia and the Pacific are getting appropriate treatment, WHO said.

'MDR-TB does not stop at borders,' warned Shigeru Omi, WHO Regional Director for the Manila-based Western Pacific office, which covers East Asia and the Pacific. 'An uncontrolled local epidemic threatens the stability of global health security.'

'TB anywhere is TB everywhere,' he added.

Omi noted that with 2 billion people traveling on airlines every year and the international migration of millions, diseases were on the move.

'We are more vulnerable than ever to the MDR-TB threat,' he said. 'Countries must act responsibly to safeguard global health.'

Omi issued the warning as health officials from countries with a high tuberculosis burden, global experts and representatives of donor agencies met in the Japanese capital Tokyo to review progress and plan policy to stop tuberculosis.

Despite the discovery of a cure half a century ago, the WHO said tuberculosis remained the leading infectious disease killing adults after HIV/AIDS. In Cambodia, China, the Philippines and Vietnam, the disease is a chief cause of death.

Pieter Van Maaren, WHO's Western Pacific regional adviser for tuberculosis, said many countries in East Asia and the Pacific did not even have adequate laboratory facilities to detect multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

'No country in the region is rushing to fight MDR-TB,' he said. 'There is a waiting list for treatment in every country. In some cases, available funds are not being used due to bureaucratic barriers or poor awareness of what can be done.'

'The lack of knowledge on MDR-TB has even led to patients being prescribed the wrong drugs, especially in the private sector,' he lamented. 'It comes down to complacency. There needs to be a change of attitude.'