COMPLACENCY in Europe鈥檚 richest countries is leading to the unchecked spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, the World Health Organization warned this week. With around 81,000 new MD-R TB cases each year, the WHO has to tackle the crisis.
鈥淭he danger with developed countries is to forget about TB, and to assume that it was eradicated years ago,鈥� says Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the WHO鈥檚 Stop TB Partnership. She cites the example of a nurse in Rome who recently spread MD-R TB to 60 infants before it was diagnosed.
The WHO鈥檚 $5-billion action plan aims to prevent 120,000 deaths and 250,000 cases of MD-R TB by 2015. It would save $7 billion by preventing ordinary TB progressing to MD-R TB, which is much more expensive to treat.
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The plan will improve diagnosis and treatment of MD-R TB so that by 2015 prevention strategies are in place in all 53 countries of the WHO鈥檚 European region.
