Corrected: Target tuberculosis in rich world as model for poor - WHO
03/07/2014 18:55
(corrects 11th paragraph to refer only to parts of Russia and
add mention of wider former Soviet Union)
* WHO launches strategy to cut TB rates in West
* Hopes rich countries serve as "trailblazers"
* India, China, Russia have high infection rates
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, July 3 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization
(WHO) on Thursday launched an ambitious plan for rich countries
to sharply reduce tuberculosis infections and serve as a model
for harder-hit countries of Africa and Asia, where the disease
still thrives.
Although the 33 targeted countries, 21 of them in Europe,
have relatively low rates of infection, the disease still kills
10,000 people a year there - predominantly homeless people,
migrants, prisoners, drug users, heavy drinkers or people with
HIV/AIDS - the WHO said.
It is in these communities that industrialised countries
including the United States could pilot approaches to a disease
that is both preventable and curable that could then be
transferred to poorer countries, Dr. Mario Raviglione, director
of the WHO's Global TB Programme, told a news briefing.
The goal is to reduce the infection rate by a factor of 10
to fewer than 10 new TB cases per million people per year by
2035 in each of the 33 countries, and to effectively eliminate
it by 2050.
"We are after, really, is finding what we call trailblazers
or model countries that would embark in a resolute way on this
campaign against tuberculosis, proving that it is indeed
possible to get to elimination level," Raviglione said.
The WHO strategy involves broader screening for both active
and latent TB infections in high-risk groups, funding
high-quality health services, and investing in new drugs,
vaccines and diagnostic tests.
GROWING DRUG RESISTANCE
Common symptoms of TB are coughing with sputum and blood at
times, chest pains, weakness, weight loss and fever. But the
disease, which is transmitted through the air, can take years to
develop, and it is also vital to test as early as possible to
determine if a person has a drug-resistant form.
Of the 155,000 annual new cases of tuberculosis in the
target countries, about 500 are multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB),
caused by an extreme superbug form of the bacterium that does
not respond to the most powerful first-line drugs.
But worldwide, China, India and South Africa are among the
hardest hit by TB.
The WHO estimates that 8.6 million people developed TB in
2012 and 1.3 million died. Some 450,000 fell ill with dangerous
superbug strains in 2012, and up to 2 million people worldwide
may be infected with drug-resistant TB by 2015, it says.
Raviglione said that Belarus and parts of Russia had high
rates of MDR, which he called a "disaster situation". Migrants
from countries of the former Soviet Union who carry the
infection could pose a threat to Western Europe, he added.
Standard treatment for TB usually includes a mix of four
antibiotic drugs over a period of six months. MDR-TB can take 18
to 24 months to treat and cost up to $100,000 in rich countries.
But research efforts are already bearing some fruit.
Raviglione said about 12 promising vaccines were being
tested, mostly by U.S. or UK companies, and some could be on the
market by 2022.
The first new TB treatment in more than 40 years, Johnson &
Johnson's JNJ.N bedaquiline, was approved in 2012 for use on
drug-resistant TB, and in 2013 the European Medicines Agency
recommended granting conditional marketing approval for
delamanid, a treatment for MDR being developed by Japan's Otsuka
4578.T .
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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Keywords: HEALTH TUBERCULOSIS/