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.'
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