WHO Reports Highest Ever Levels of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (Switzerland)
Stop TB Partnership, www.stoptb.org, February 3, 2012
A new study by the World Health Organization (WHO) provides an analysis of MDR TB. According to the study, drug resistance was found in 3.4 percent of all new TB cases and 20 percent of previously treated cases globally. Countries in eastern Europe and central Asia had the highest proportion of MDR TB among TB cases. Nearly 30 percent of new TB patients in the oblast of Murmansk in the Russian Federation and 65 percent of previously treated patients in the Republic of Moldova had MDR TB. Read more [+/-]
Data are still lacking from many countries, in particular India and most of Africa, where there is a high TB burden. The study includes data from 57 countries on extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB) found among the MDR TB cases. The data from all countries showed that XDR TB was present in about 10 percent of MDR TB cases. This study was published online in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2012;90:111â€"119D [doi:10.2471/BLT.11.092585].
Good Results in Programme to Boost TB Detection (Tanzania)
IPP Media, www.ippmedia.com, February 4, 2012, by the Guardian Reporter
Tanzania has had good results from a pilot community program to improve TB detection in the northern part of the country. The program ran from April to September of 2011. It systemized the way TB cases were reported and handled with health care professionals working closely with community leaders to raise awareness of symptoms. Posters and slogans were used to make high-risk groups aware of symptoms. Health agencies, including Management Science for Health, the National TB and Leprosy Program, and the nongovernment organization PATH collaborated with each other with financial support from the US Agency for International Development. Read more [+/-]
Also, the program emphasized the coordination of TB and HIV treatment. As a result, there were more patient referrals to health centers for diagnosis, treatment, and follow up; improved TB case notification in children and women; improved team work, commitment, and motivation of health care workers; and awareness and involvement of communities in TB control activities. A comparison of six months of TB case notification before and after the project showed a 54 percent increase in TB detection in all forms in Meru, and a 117 percent increase in Arusha. There were some challenges to the scale up, including the need to strengthen laboratory services. The plan to replicate the program nationwide could be problematic because of the difficulty of access to health care for those in very rural areas, and the shortage of medical professionals.
