Fears of 'extreme' Super bug TB strain grow
Pastor Dale Morgan
Fears of 'extreme' Super bug TB strain grow*
New drug-resistant infection is 'nightmare' say health experts
Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday September 3, 2006
The Observer
Health experts are to hold an emergency meeting in Johannesburg this
week, following the discovery of a deadly new strain of tuberculosis.
The strain - known as extreme drug-resistant TB - has horrified World
Health Organisation doctors. In one outbreak in South Africa, 52 of 53
patients died within weeks of becoming infected.
'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.'
The strain was originally discovered by scientists earlier this year.
They looked at cases of multiple drug-resistant TB - which has developed
over the past decade in many parts of the world - and discovered that
among these a worrying new 'extreme' strain had evolved.
'Mainstream drugs are ineffective against multiple drug-resistant TB,'
said Nunn. '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.
· The meeting will be attended by officials from WHO and its partners,
including the South African Medical Research Council and the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.