WHO says Asia should act against tuberculosis

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WHO says Asia should act against tuberculosis

Mon Jul 21, 1:46 AM ET

TOKYO - The World Health Organization urged Asian countries on Monday

to take action against the growing threat of drug-resistant

tuberculosis, warning that even more virulent forms of the disease

could spread if they fail to do so.

WHO said many Asian countries lack adequate laboratory facilities to

detect multidrug-resistant TB, and only 1 percent of the estimated

150,000 people infected with the disease in East Asia and the Pacific

are receiving appropriate treatment.

" No country in the region is rushing to fight multidrug-resistant TB, "

Dr. Pieter Van Maaren, WHO's Western Pacific regional adviser for

tuberculosis, said in a statement.

He said Asian leaders " need to wake up and realize what is at risk.

This is a disease that you can transmit in a cough to your children. "

WHO said multidrug-resistant TB is caused by mismanagement of standard

tuberculosis treatment, and that mobility, migration and urban housing

are also fueling the highly contagious disease.

Multidrug-resistant TB — which resists treatment by at least two of

the best anti-TB drugs — accounts for 5 percent of 9 million new

tuberculosis cases worldwide, WHO said. In China, one out of every 10

new tuberculosis cases is multidrug-resistant, it said.

WHO said drug-resistant TB is also a serious problem in the Philippines.

" We are more vulnerable than ever to the multidrug-resistant TB

threat, " Dr. Shigeru Omi, WHO's regional director for the Western

Pacific, said in the statement.

WHO warned that inadequate action against multidrug-resistant TB could

result in the spread of " extensively drug-resistant TB, " a form of

tuberculosis resistant to all of the most effective drugs.

A 2005 outbreak of extensively drug-resistant TB, which is virtually

impossible to treat, killed 52 people in South Africa, WHO said.

http://news./s/ap/20080721/ap_on_he_me/asia_tuberculosis