Google – AFP, 23 October 2013
 |
A
tuberculosis (TB) patient (2nd right) receives medication at a clinic in Alexandra
township, north of Johannesburg on October 13, 2010 (AFP/File,Stephane de Sakutin) |
Geneva —
Tuberculosis claimed 1.3 million lives last year with drug-resistant forms of
the infectious disease -- the deadliest after AIDS -- a huge global concern,
the WHO warned Wedesday.
Worldwide
efforts to rein in the killer airborne disease helped drive the toll down
100,000 from the previous year, the World Health Organization said in its
annual report on the fight against TB.
But the
toll remains the world's second-highest for an infectious disease, after
HIV/AIDS.
An
estimated 8.6 million people caught tuberculosis in 2012, with India alone
accounting for 26 percent of cases, and China, 12 percent.
According
to the WHO, close to one-third of TB cases were in Southeast Asia, just over a
quarter in Africa and around one-fifth on the Western Pacific region.
Looking at
the longer-term picture, the number of infections fell by nearly half from 1990
to 2012.
But experts
reckon only two-thirds of last year's 8.6 million new cases were actually
diagnosed, leaving an estimated three million people unaware they had the
disease.
Those most
at risk are typically among the worst-off groups of the population, the report
said.
"To
find the three million TB cases means we need to reach beyond the current
health services, we need to look at where these cases are," WHO expert
Karin Meyer told reporters.
"These
are often vulnerable populations, displaced populations, migrant population,
quite difficult to reach," she added.
Global
health experts also warned of the growing threat posed by a strain of TB that
resists drugs used to fight the classic form.
Multidrug-resistant
TB, or MDR-TB, which emerged due to erratic treatment of the regular strain or
excessive use of anti-TB medication, claimed 170,000 lives last year, the WHO
said.
Some 94,000
people were diagnosed with MDR-TB last year, twice the figure in 2011.
But the
true number of cases is thought to be around five times higher, the WHO added.
'A real
public health crisis'
The highest
density of MDR-TB cases is found in the former communist countries of Eastern
Europe and Central Asia.
Those are
places where TB programmes have long been in place, but where failings in health
services have allowed drug-resistance to build up, officials said.
In
contrast, Africa has seen lower levels of MDR-TB, in part because of weaker
access to standard TB treatment in the past.
Other
countries hit hard by MDR-TB include China and India.
"The
unmet demand for a full-scale and quality response to multidrug-resistant
tuberculosis is a real public health crisis," said Mario Raviglione, head
of the WHO's TB programme.
The
standard drugs used to treat TB are isoniazid and rifampicin. Vaccines are in
development, but are not expected to hit the market before 2025, the WHO said.
MDR-TB is
able to ward off both isoniazid and rifampicin.
It can be
treated with bedaquilin, which came onto the market at the end of last year and
is the first new TB drug in four decades.
But
bedaquilin is costly, the WHO stressed, with a $30,000 (22,000-euro) price tag
for a six-month course of treatment in developed countries, and some $1,000 in
the developing world.
Since the
WHO launched a major anti-TB drive in 1995, a total of 56 million people have
been treated and 22 million lives saved, the agency said.
"Quality
TB care for millions worldwide has driven down TB deaths," said
Raviglione.
"But
far too many people are still missing out on such care and are suffering as a
result. They are not diagnosed, or not treated, or information on the quality
of care they receive is unknown," he added.
The agency
also warned funding for its anti-TB campaign was falling short of its target.
A
conventional two-year course of TB treatment costs between $4,000 and $10,000
in developing countries.
The WHO
said it needed to bridge a $2 billion annual gap in order to meet its overall
requirement of up to $8 billion a year to fight the disease in low and
middle-income countries.
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