WHO raises concern over drug resistant Ttuberculosis

Kampala

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is warning that two million people globally could contract tuberculosis that is resistant to drugs by 2015.

The UN health body says unless greater efforts are made to fight multi-drug resistant TB, the number of deaths from the disease will continue to grow. Multi-drug resistant TB is a form of TB that fails to respond to standard first-line drugs. Currently TB kills an estimated two million people annually, especially in developing countries.

WHO says some 25,000 people are diagnosed each year with an even more dangerous form called extensive drug-resistant TB. “Many countries have made progress, but despite the recent scale up in efforts, the world needs to do much more to get care to all multi drug resistant TB patients who need it. We cannot allow multi-drug resistant TB to spread unchecked,” said Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. Although the extent of drug-resistant TB is not known in Uganda, doctors term it a sitting time bomb.

TB ranking
Uganda is ranked 15th among 22 high-burden TB countries in the world. Collectively, these countries account for 80 per cent of all TB cases. Although TB can be cured if detected early, its treatment which requires a cocktail of antibiotics, usually administered for at least 6 months or more makes it hard for many patients to comply with treatment.

The result of this has been the development of drug resistant strains of the disease, which according to health experts is more costly to treat. Averagely, it costs Shs40,000 to treat non-drug resistant TB and the treatment can take between six and eight months while drug resistant TB treatment can cost as much as Shs8 million per person and takes longer than two years before the patient gets cured.

According to the Uganda National TB and Leprosy Control Porgramme, of all the TB patients who started treatment in 2008, only 75 per cent were successfully treated and cured. Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, the African region representative for WHO said the high burden of TB has been worsened by HIV/Aids.