High levels of resistant TB in Russia, China

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Information gathered by the World Health Organization and other groups between 2000 and 2002 indicates the presence of strains of tuberculosis (TB) that are resistant to one or more standard drugs in virtually all of the countries surveyed, with particularly high levels in areas of the former Soviet Union and China.

The most recent data analysis from the Global Project on Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance reveals that just 3 of the 79 countries surveyed (Andorra, Iceland, and Malta) had no drug-resistant TB, according to the report in The Lancet.

Among the new cases of TB that arose in 76 countries surveyed, the median prevalence of drug-resistant TB was 10.2 percent, the report indicates.

Findings from the study, which was conducted by the WHO's Dr. Mario Raviglione and colleagues, also indicate that roughly 424,000 cases of "multidrug-resistant" TB emerged in 2004. More than half of these cases occurred in China, India, and Russia.

Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Israel, China (Liaoning and Henan provinces), Lithuania and Latvia all had rates of multidrug-resistant TB greater than 6.5 percent.

Russia and Botswana showed the most significant increases in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant, with TB almost completely resistant in these two countries, whereas Hong Kong and the US showed significant drops in multidrug-resistant TB.

"Over the past 10 years a solid foundation has been laid to measure and treat drug-resistant forms of TB. Political commitment and improved capacity of laboratory networks are imperative for the control of TB and the future of surveillance," the authors conclude.

SOURCE: Lancet, December 16, 2006.