[Zepps_News] #Fears of 'extreme' nightmare TB strain

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[Zepps_News] #Fears of 'extreme' nightmare TB strain

 

 

 

 

http://observer. guardian. co.uk/world/ story/0,, 1863850,00.

html?gusrc= rss & feed= 12

 

<http://observer. guardian. co.uk/world/ story/0,, 1863850,00.

html?gusrc= rss & feed= 12>

 

 

 

Fears of 'extreme' TB strain

 

New drug-resistant infection is 'nightmare' say health experts

 

Robin McKie, science editor

Sunday September 3, 2006

The Observer

 

Health experts are to hold an emergency meeting in Johannesburg this

week, following the discovery of a deadly new strain of tuberculosis.

 

The strain - known as extreme drug-resistant TB - has horrified World

Health Organisation doctors. In one outbreak in South Africa, 52 of 53

patients died within weeks of becoming infected.

 

'This new strain leaves us facing a nightmare,' said Paul Nunn,

coordinator of the WHO's drug-resistance unit. 'It is resistant to

nearly every drug in our arsenal. We are now on the threshold of the

appearance of a strain of TB that is resistant to every medicine known

to science.'

 

The strain was originally discovered by scientists earlier this year.

They looked at cases of multiple drug-resistant TB - which has developed

over the past decade in many parts of the world - and discovered that

among these a worrying new 'extreme' strain had evolved.

 

'Mainstream drugs are ineffective against multiple drug-resistant TB,'

said Nunn. 'However, there are half a dozen second-line medicines that

can be used to tackle it. Now this new extreme resistant strain has

appeared. It is not only resistant to our principal anti-TB drugs, but

to many of our second-line defences. In short, we are now on the last

line of our defences against tuberculosis. '

 

Among the areas found to have been affected by extreme drug-resistant TB

are Latvia and South Africa. Scientists discovered the strain last month

among HIV-infected patients in the Kwazulu-Natal region. 'Fifty two of

the 53 infected people are already dead, and the last may well have died

by now,' added Nunn.

 

An estimated 4.5 million people in South Africa have HIV. Extreme

drug-resistance TB could devastate the population. 'If countries don't

have the diagnostic capacity to find these patients, they will die

without proper treatment,' said Nunn.

 

As a result, WHO is to hold its emergency meeting in Johannesburg to

help establish measures that will lead to the rapid diagnosis of the new

strain.

 

'It appears to kill within a few weeks and that does not give us a lot

of time to spot it and treat it with the right drugs,' added Nunn. The

few classes of drugs that are still effective against this strain of TB

are expensive and can be toxic.

 

· The meeting will be attended by officials from WHO and its partners,

including the South African Medical Research Council and the US Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

--

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about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.

Nothing has

changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,

we're

talking about getting a court order before we do so "

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

 

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