Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 9/28/2006

[Guest guest]

U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) -

[These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENT:

1 - SOUTH AFRICA: Global effort to fight deadly TB strain

1 - SOUTH AFRICA: Global effort to fight deadly TB strain

JOHANNESBURG, 28 September (PLUSNEWS) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) will

convene a " global task force " in Geneva in October to thrash out a battle plan

against extremely drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), a deadly, drug-resistant

disease that has already killed 60 people in South Africa and is threatening to

spread across the region.

Experts fear that South Africa's high rates of HIV/AIDS - about one in nine of

the country's 45 million people are HIV positive, making them acutely

susceptible to tuberculosis - could fast-track XDR-TB into a global epidemic.

HIV infection rates are similarly high in the neighbouring countries of

Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, which have yet to report

any XDR-TB cases.

The particularly virulent strain, resistant to drugs used to treat both

tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), has already

surfaced in two South African provinces and is suspected in a third, with

Gauteng province, the country's economic hub, recently reporting a batch of new

cases.

" Following rigorous testing of multi-drug resistance TB patients, the Gauteng

Health Department has confirmed six cases of XDR-TB in the province, " the

department said in a statement.

" Three of these patients are already receiving medical care at (Johannesburg's)

Sizwe Tropical Disease Hospital. The department is in the process of tracing the

other three patients, " it said.

South Africa's health minister, attacked by critics for her slow and confusing

response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, which includes promoting nutrition as an

effective HIV treatment, has been faster to respond to the threat posed by

XDR-TB.

Minister minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has called for an " urgent meeting "

with the WHO and has promised to deliver more drugs to fight the disease.

" I have been in touch with the WHO as well as ministers of health in the region.

I have requested an urgent meeting with experts from the WHO so that we can get

assistance to develop a national as well as a regional strategy to deal with

XDR-TB, " Tshabalala-Msimang said in a statement.

" I held a consultative meeting with TB researchers, clinicians as well as

laboratory scientists and we agreed that they will keep me briefed on a

continuous basis with regard to the extent of the problem and what can and is

being done to contain the problem, " she said.

Health ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) put

XDR-TB at the top of their agenda at a meeting in Maputo, Mozambique last week.

In a statement, the ministers said they agreed to strengthen tuberculosis

programmes in their respective countries, to enhance surveillance systems and to

develop a " preparedness plan " to deal with the XDR-TB challenge in the region.

SPREADS LIKE COMMON COLD

Tuberculosis, especially the XDR-TB strain, poses an acute threat in Africa and

other less-developed regions because the disease is easy to contract, but

problematic and expensive to treat.

An airborne disease that killed millions in Europe in the 19th and early 20th

centuries, TB spreads much like the common cold through the coughs and sneezes

of infected people.

The first symptoms of the illness include weight loss, fever and night sweats.

In the advanced stages victims cough up blood. If untreated, TB can kill a

patient by gradually boring holes through the lungs.

The numbers the disease infects today makes for sober reading. Globally, about 8

to 10 million people contract TB each year and about 1.7 million of those die,

according to the WHO. While most strains of drug-resistant TB are treatable,

fighting them requires prolonged and expensive doses of medication. The required

time to treat TB can vary from six months through to two years, putting huge

pressure on the health infrastructure of developing countries.

Experts say XDR-TB has been detected in other countries, including the United

States, the Republic of Korea and the former Soviet republic of Latvia, but that

the situation in South Africa is particularly worrying because of the extremely

high mortality rates.

Of the 60 reported deaths in South Africa all have been in KwaZulu-Natal

province, where doctors first detected XDR-TB last year. Of the 60 deaths, 44

were HIV positive, meaning the disease is also killing patients with relatively

healthy immune systems. Doctors are also carrying out tests on two deceased

miners in the Free State province to determine whether they died from XDR-TB.

Health officials in South Africa have stressed to tuberculosis sufferers the

importance of completing a full course of treatment. Doctors have even raised

the threat of legal action against patients who refuse treatment after a woman

suffering from XDR-TB walked out of a Johannesburg hospital and returned home,

possibly infecting many more people.

jh/go/oa

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Subscriber: AIDS treatments

[Guest guest]

U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) -

[These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENT:

1 - SOUTH AFRICA: Global effort to fight deadly TB strain

1 - SOUTH AFRICA: Global effort to fight deadly TB strain

JOHANNESBURG, 28 September (PLUSNEWS) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) will

convene a " global task force " in Geneva in October to thrash out a battle plan

against extremely drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), a deadly, drug-resistant

disease that has already killed 60 people in South Africa and is threatening to

spread across the region.

Experts fear that South Africa's high rates of HIV/AIDS - about one in nine of

the country's 45 million people are HIV positive, making them acutely

susceptible to tuberculosis - could fast-track XDR-TB into a global epidemic.

HIV infection rates are similarly high in the neighbouring countries of

Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe, which have yet to report

any XDR-TB cases.

The particularly virulent strain, resistant to drugs used to treat both

tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), has already

surfaced in two South African provinces and is suspected in a third, with

Gauteng province, the country's economic hub, recently reporting a batch of new

cases.

" Following rigorous testing of multi-drug resistance TB patients, the Gauteng

Health Department has confirmed six cases of XDR-TB in the province, " the

department said in a statement.

" Three of these patients are already receiving medical care at (Johannesburg's)

Sizwe Tropical Disease Hospital. The department is in the process of tracing the

other three patients, " it said.

South Africa's health minister, attacked by critics for her slow and confusing

response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, which includes promoting nutrition as an

effective HIV treatment, has been faster to respond to the threat posed by

XDR-TB.

Minister minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has called for an " urgent meeting "

with the WHO and has promised to deliver more drugs to fight the disease.

" I have been in touch with the WHO as well as ministers of health in the region.

I have requested an urgent meeting with experts from the WHO so that we can get

assistance to develop a national as well as a regional strategy to deal with

XDR-TB, " Tshabalala-Msimang said in a statement.

" I held a consultative meeting with TB researchers, clinicians as well as

laboratory scientists and we agreed that they will keep me briefed on a

continuous basis with regard to the extent of the problem and what can and is

being done to contain the problem, " she said.

Health ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) put

XDR-TB at the top of their agenda at a meeting in Maputo, Mozambique last week.

In a statement, the ministers said they agreed to strengthen tuberculosis

programmes in their respective countries, to enhance surveillance systems and to

develop a " preparedness plan " to deal with the XDR-TB challenge in the region.

SPREADS LIKE COMMON COLD

Tuberculosis, especially the XDR-TB strain, poses an acute threat in Africa and

other less-developed regions because the disease is easy to contract, but

problematic and expensive to treat.

An airborne disease that killed millions in Europe in the 19th and early 20th

centuries, TB spreads much like the common cold through the coughs and sneezes

of infected people.

The first symptoms of the illness include weight loss, fever and night sweats.

In the advanced stages victims cough up blood. If untreated, TB can kill a

patient by gradually boring holes through the lungs.

The numbers the disease infects today makes for sober reading. Globally, about 8

to 10 million people contract TB each year and about 1.7 million of those die,

according to the WHO. While most strains of drug-resistant TB are treatable,

fighting them requires prolonged and expensive doses of medication. The required

time to treat TB can vary from six months through to two years, putting huge

pressure on the health infrastructure of developing countries.

Experts say XDR-TB has been detected in other countries, including the United

States, the Republic of Korea and the former Soviet republic of Latvia, but that

the situation in South Africa is particularly worrying because of the extremely

high mortality rates.

Of the 60 reported deaths in South Africa all have been in KwaZulu-Natal

province, where doctors first detected XDR-TB last year. Of the 60 deaths, 44

were HIV positive, meaning the disease is also killing patients with relatively

healthy immune systems. Doctors are also carrying out tests on two deceased

miners in the Free State province to determine whether they died from XDR-TB.

Health officials in South Africa have stressed to tuberculosis sufferers the

importance of completing a full course of treatment. Doctors have even raised

the threat of legal action against patients who refuse treatment after a woman

suffering from XDR-TB walked out of a Johannesburg hospital and returned home,

possibly infecting many more people.

jh/go/oa

[ENDS]

This is non-reply e-mail. Please do not hesitate to contact us at

Mail@....

Principal donors: IRIN is generously supported by Australia, Canada, Denmark,

ECHO, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and

the United States of America. For more information, go to:

http://www.IRINnews.org/donors

[This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information

service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its

agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer

to the copyright page (Http://www.irinnews.org/copyright ) for conditions of

use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian

Affairs.]

PLUSNEWS

Tel: +27 11 895-1900

Fax: +27 11 784-6759

Email: Mail@...

To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:

http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions

Subscriber: AIDS treatments