SOUTH Africa is witnessing an explosion in the number of cases of
drug-resistant tuberculosis, according to Action TB, a research group funded by
the British pharmaceuticals company Glaxo Wellcome.
The group says that the number of cases of multidrug-resistant TB in the
KwaZulu-Natal region has risen by 300 per cent in just one year. 鈥淭he extent of
this increase is new and very worrying,鈥� says Ken Duncan, head of Action TB.
The researchers say that in some parts of South Africa, one in ten cases of
TB is resistant to treatment.
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The news came as the WHO announced that its latest strategy for treating
TB鈥攇iving the patient a standard course of pills, but under the
supervision of another adult to ensure compliance鈥攚as bearing fruit.
However, the WHO鈥檚 director-general, Hiroshi Nakajima, concedes that only one in
ten patients worldwide receives this form of treatment.