TB strain could pose threat to millions across Africa
The New York Times, January 28, 2007
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — More than a year after a virulent strain of tuberculosis killed 52 of 53 infected patients in a rural South African hospital, experts here and abroad say the disease has most likely spread to neighboring countries, and some say urgent action is essential to halt its advance.
Several expressed concern at what they called South Africa's sluggish response to a health emergency that, if left unchecked, could prove hugely expensive to contain and could threaten millions of Africans.
The director of the government's tuberculosis programs called those concerns unfounded and said officials were doing everything reasonable to combat the outbreak.
The form of TB, known as XDR for extensively drug-resistant, cannot be effectively treated with most first-and second-line tuberculosis drugs, and some doctors consider it incurable. The threat is exacerbated by the prevalence of HIV in South Africa.
Since it was first detected last year in KwaZulu-Natal province, additional cases have been found at 39 hospitals in South Africa's other eight provinces.
In interviews on Friday, several epidemiologists and TB experts said the disease had probably moved into Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique — countries that share borders and migrant work forces with South Africa — and perhaps to Zimbabwe.
But no one can say with certainty, because none of those countries have the laboratories and experts necessary to diagnose the disease. Even in South Africa, where nearly 330 cases have been documented, evidence of the disease's spread is mostly anecdotal.
Cases of XDR TB exist elsewhere — in Russia and China where inadequate treatment programs have allowed drug-resistant strains of the disease to emerge. The South African outbreak is considered far more alarming, however, because it is not only far larger, but is at the center of the world's HIV pandemic.
Tuberculosis thrives when immune systems are weakened by HIV. At least two in three South African TB sufferers are HIV-positive. Should XDR TB gain a foothold in the HIV-positive population, it could wreak havoc not only among the 5 million South Africans with the virus, but tens of millions others across sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/news/166543.php
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — More than a year after a virulent strain of tuberculosis killed 52 of 53 infected patients in a rural South African hospital, experts here and abroad say the disease has most likely spread to neighboring countries, and some say urgent action is essential to halt its advance.
Several expressed concern at what they called South Africa's sluggish response to a health emergency that, if left unchecked, could prove hugely expensive to contain and could threaten millions of Africans.
The director of the government's tuberculosis programs called those concerns unfounded and said officials were doing everything reasonable to combat the outbreak.
The form of TB, known as XDR for extensively drug-resistant, cannot be effectively treated with most first-and second-line tuberculosis drugs, and some doctors consider it incurable. The threat is exacerbated by the prevalence of HIV in South Africa.
Since it was first detected last year in KwaZulu-Natal province, additional cases have been found at 39 hospitals in South Africa's other eight provinces.
In interviews on Friday, several epidemiologists and TB experts said the disease had probably moved into Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique — countries that share borders and migrant work forces with South Africa — and perhaps to Zimbabwe.
But no one can say with certainty, because none of those countries have the laboratories and experts necessary to diagnose the disease. Even in South Africa, where nearly 330 cases have been documented, evidence of the disease's spread is mostly anecdotal.
Cases of XDR TB exist elsewhere — in Russia and China where inadequate treatment programs have allowed drug-resistant strains of the disease to emerge. The South African outbreak is considered far more alarming, however, because it is not only far larger, but is at the center of the world's HIV pandemic.
Tuberculosis thrives when immune systems are weakened by HIV. At least two in three South African TB sufferers are HIV-positive. Should XDR TB gain a foothold in the HIV-positive population, it could wreak havoc not only among the 5 million South Africans with the virus, but tens of millions others across sub-Saharan Africa.
Source: http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/news/166543.php
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 1:18 pm
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