Botswana Confirms Cases of Resistant TB Superbug
Pastor Dale Morgan
Botswana Confirms Cases of Resistant TB Superbug
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By SELLO MOTSETA
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 16, 2008; 3:42 PM
GABORONE, Botswana -- Health authorities on Wednesday reported the first
known cases of virtually untreatable tuberculosis in Botswana, following
fears that the highly contagious strain has spread beyond neighboring
South Africa.
The health ministry said there were two cases of so-called extremely
drug resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, as well as 100 cases of the
slightly more manageable multi-drug resistant TB, or MDR-TB.
Although XDR-TB has been reported in other parts of the world,
especially former Soviet republics, it is particularly lethal in
southern Africa, where AIDS incidence is high, because it combines with
AIDS to kill.
The drug resistant forms of TB have developed largely because patients
don't stick to their six-month course of treatment.
For the past few months, health professionals have warned that XDR-TB,
although only confirmed in South Africa, had spread to other southern
African nations like Swaziland and Lesotho hard hit by the AIDS
epidemic, but hadn't been diagnosed because of lack of laboratory
facilities.
Nearly 400 cases have been reported so far in South Africa, but there
may be more cases. Testing methods are inaccurate and out of date and
many patients die before they are diagnosed. Botswana is the only other
country in southern Africa with testing facilities.
Several provinces in South Africa have taken legal action to force drug
resistant TB patients to stay in hospitals in isolation units surrounded
by wire fences and protected by guards.
Although forced confinement of patients violates most medical ethics,
authorities say they have no choice but to put the wider public good
above individual rights. Confinement for XDR-TB is at least six months,
usually much longer.
Dozens of patients with the disease escaped from two hospitals in South
Africa's Eastern Cape province just before Christmas, saying they wanted
to spend the festive season with their families. South African police
mounted door-to-door searches for the patients. Eight still reportedly
remain at large.
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Associated Press Writer Clare Nullis contributed to this report from
Cape Town, South Africa.