Posted on behalf of Linda Nordling
Global data on drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) grossly underestimate the true burden of the disease, scientists warn in a report published today, on World Tuberculosis Day.
Better diagnostic tools and more research into treatment options are essential to bring the epidemic under control, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the United States National Academies say in a joint report.
The report, The Emerging Threat of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in Southern Africa: Global and Local Challenges, draws on lessons learnt by managing the disease in South Africa, where high HIV infection rates and poor healthcare have resulted in a rapid rise in multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB.
It is not known how many people in South Africa suffer from drug-resistant TB, the report says, although WHO estimates that more than 75,000 new MDR TB cases will occur in Africa in 2010. But these data probably under-estimate the situation on the ground, the report says.
Better diagnostic tests and more research on treatment options are urgently needed to curb drug-resistant TB in South Africa, it continues. Speed is of the essence in clinical care, as mathematical models suggest that if diagnosis takes 40 days, the numbers infected will continue to rise, while diagnosis within 6 days would result in a decrease.
Better diagnostics are particularly important for children, who are a growing group of sufferers. Little is known about the best way of treating the disease in children and pregnant women.
Speaking in Durban today, South Africa’s health minister outlined two new projects to fight TB in the country. At one Durban hospital he unveiled a machine that will reduce waiting times for diagnostic test results from four to six weeks to two hours.
He also announced a project to provide health workers in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province with smartphones. Collecting data in the field and then using Geographic Information Systems software, the phones will help to identify TB “hot spots” according to Health 24, a South African news site.
But although TB is a rising threat in Africa, preliminary data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the disease reached an all-time low in the country last year. The rate declined 3.9% from 2009 to 2010, to 3.6 cases per 100,000 people, CDC reports.