South Africa acts to curb spread of lethal strain of TB

doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7573.825-a

BMJ 2006;333:825 (21 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7573.825-a

News roundup

South Africa acts to curb spread of lethal strain of TB

Johannesburg Pat Sidley

The South African government has invited experts from the World Health Organization to meet next week in a bid to formulate a plan to combat the rise in multidrug resistant and extensively multidrug resistant tuberculosis. The move comes amid allegations that the government has failed to act promptly.

South Africa’s Medical Research Council, its National Health Department, and WHO say that none of the drugs currently available in South Africa for first or second line treatment of tuberculosis is effective against the extensively resistant variant.

The government’s response follows an emergency meeting held last month in Johannesburg that was attended by representatives from the Medical Research Council, WHO, and the US Centers for Disease Control but not health department officials.

About 500 000 South Africans have tuberculosis, most of whom are also infected with HIV. Around 6000 people have the multidrug resistant variant.

The extensively resistant variant first . . . [Full text of this article]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Complore Complore Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Add to Digg Digg Add to Reddit Reddit Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Add to Technorati Technorati What's this?