One Geek

Just read some interesting information on Multiple Drug Resistant(MDR) and Extremly Drug Resistant TB(XDR). Here are some quotes from one of the pages I was looking at.

10%
Proportion of all new cases of active TB resistant to at least one anti-TB drug

420,000
Estimated annual prevalence of MDR-TB (2005)

10,000$
Cost of curing one case of MDR-TB

6-59%
Range of cure rates for MDR-TB treatment

39%
Reported prevalence of MDR-TB in South African study

80%
KZN TB patients also infected with HIV

“I’ve been to some of the worst places in the world dealing with TB. This is the worst epidemic I’ve seen.”
- Dr. Jim Yong Kim, Partners in Health, following recent trip to Lesotho

“We are dealing with a type of TB that is virtually untreatable.”
- Dr Paul Nunn, WHO Stop TB Department

[XDR-TB is]…a manifestation of failure of good practice in TB control
- Dr Mario Raviglione, Director, WHO Stop-TB Department

We need to pay attention to XDR-TB, but we do not need to panic
- Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Health (US)

“This [XDR TB] is very
worrying, especially when mixed with HIV
- Dr Paul Nunn,
WHO

“XDR TB is very serious - we are potentially getting close to a bacteria that we have no tools, no weapons against”

- Paul Sommerfeld,
Stop TB

One in Ten Page

I know it all seems a bit depressing but I think it’s important to be informed. I think that being aware about MDR and XDR TB is useful if you are doing any lobbying about the Millennium Development Goals or against drug company patents.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 8:21 am and is filed under HIV/AIDS and TB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.