M. tuberculosisTwo short medical related article in Observer piqued my interest. The first concerns the discovery of a deadly new strain of Tuberculosis that is resistant to virtually every anti TB drug in medicine’s arsenal. Sadly, the emergence of a strain that is resistant to all available drugs is inevitable. TB already accounts for nearly 2 Million lives a year (WHO estimates are that it killed 1.7m people worldwide in 2004), a completely drug resistant version will increase this figure, in particular among the world’s poor and the vulnerable (we can see a horrific foretaste below).
Even if effective treatments are forthcoming they will not be on stream for some years. Would we be in this situation if our pharmaceutical firms were not so focused on developing another Viagra? Perhaps, but then Mycobacterium tuberculosis would find a way around these drugs sooner or later.
Fears of Extreme TB strain
Health experts are to hold an emergency meeting in Johannesburg this week, following the discovery earlier this year of a deadly new strain of tuberculosis (aka .extreme drug-resistant TB).
'This new strain leaves us facing a nightmare,' said Paul Nunn, coordinator of the WHO's drug-resistance unit. It is resistant to nearly every drug in our arsenal. We are now on the threshold of the appearance of a strain of TB that is resistant to every medicine known to science. Mainstream drugs are ineffective against multiple drug-resistant TB. However, there are half a dozen second-line medicines that can be used to tackle it. Now this new extreme resistant strain has appeared. It is not only resistant to our principal anti-TB drugs, but to many of our second-line defences. In short, we are now on the last line of our defences against tuberculosis.'
Among the areas found to have been affected by extreme drug-resistant TB are Latvia and South Africa. Scientists discovered the strain last month among HIV-infected patients in the Kwazulu-Natal region. 'Fifty two of the 53 infected people are already dead, and the last may well have died by now,' added Nunn. An estimated 4.5 million people in South Africa have HIV. Extreme drug-resistance TB could devastate the population. 'If countries don't have the diagnostic capacity to find these patients, they will die without proper treatment,' said Nunn.
As a result, WHO is to hold its emergency meeting in Johannesburg to help establish measures that will lead to the rapid diagnosis of the new strain. 'It appears to kill within a few weeks and that does not give us a lot of time to spot it and treat it with the right drugs,' added Nunn. The few classes of drugs that are still effective against this strain of TB are expensive and can be toxic.
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3 comments:
It certainly will but will it be too late?
TB is on the rise here in the States too. Largely blamed on undocumented (illegal) immigrants that haven't passed our disease screening process, and then come in and pass it to others.
An illegal immigrant in Los Angeles tested positive for the Bubonis Plague a few months ago in Los Angeles. That one scared the crap out of me along with this newly identified blight that is coming up from Mexico that has people growing colored fibrous tumors all over their body. It's not fatal, but is extremely painful for the victim. I looked for a link but I can't remember the exact name of this disease. Let me tell you, there's been several diagnosed here in Texas. That's some scary shit!
Immigration almost certainly has contributed to a resurgence. I can only imagine the situation is made far worse by poor living conditions,
Bubinic Plague is horrible, but unless it is pneumonic you have a good chance of survival if you get antibiotic treatment. I gather that there are about a dozen cases in the USA each year, I presume there must be a reservoir of the disease among rodents
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