With cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis increasing, international experts warn that the widespread emergence of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR) could lead to virtually untreatable tuberculosis. “With ease of international travel, and increased rates of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis in eastern Europe, central Asia, and elsewhere, the threat and range of the spread of untreatable tuberculosis is very real,” say authors in a special paper published in British journal Lancet.
Declared a global health emergency by WHO 20 years ago, experts noted that tuberculosis remains a leading cause of death by infectious disease worldwide.
The growing threat both multidrug resistant TB, which is resistant to treatment with isoniazid and rifampin, the two most potent TB drugs, and extensively drug resistant TB, which is resistant to an even wider range of drugs, means that without concerted action from political leaders, health policy makers, funders, and others, health systems worldwide are at risk being overwhelmed by increasing numbers of patients with treatment-resistant TB.
Authors warn that the emergence of XDR TB in the last 8 years heralds the possibility of “virtually untreatable TB”, and without visionary political leadership and a radical shift in policymakers’ perceptions of TB, global efforts to control TB will be threatened,” it said.
According to the authors of the study, “For many decades, the response to global tuberculosis by governments in both wealthy and disease-endemic countries has been complacent and politically neglectful. A major conceptual change and visionary global leadership are needed to move away from the conventional view that tuberculosis is only a disease of poor nations.”
Experts feel that a radical change in political and scientific thinking, and the implementation of specific measures worldwide are needed. “The global economic crisis and reduced investments in health services threaten national tuberculosis programmes and the gains made in global tuberculosis control. The world needs to acknowledge the serious threat of drug-resistant tuberculosis, before it overwhelms health systems.”
Nevertheless, according to WHO estimates, 8.7 million people became ill with TB in 2011, and there were 1.4 million deaths from TB in the same year.