WHO Sounds Alarm On Drug-Resistant TB

摘要

The World Health Organization (WHO) has added an alarm bell to its assessment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB), calling it "a public health crisis" in an annual update on the disease, released on 23 October. WHO has declared for nearly 2 decades that tuberculosis, which sickened 8.6 million in 2012, is "a global public health emergency." Mortality rates have declined in drug-susceptible cases, which are curable with a 6-month course of three well-tolerated drugs. But in the new assessment, WHO scolds countries for being "far off track" in the diagnosis and treatment of MDR TB, which requires giving patients more toxic drugs for up to 2 years. WHO estimates that 450,000 people developed MDR TB last year, but only 94,000 of the cases were detected, and 82% of these received treatment.