Quick diagnoses of drug-resistant TB crucial: experts

By Tan Ee Lyn

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Countries with huge caseloads of tuberculosis are finding it hard to cope because they do not have the laboratories to make speedy diagnoses that are essential to save lives.

Speaking at an infectious disease conference in Kuala Lumpur, TB specialists spoke about how it could take up to five months for patients to get test results and often the patients would be dead by then.

This was especially true for patients with drug-resistant forms of TB and immune systems that were seriously compromised by other diseases, such as AIDS.

Drug-resistant TB is more difficult to treat and patients can die without stronger, second-line drugs.

"We have treatments that are moderately effective and that are available at affordable prices, but the bottleneck is diagnosing the cases and getting them the right treatment," said David Moore, an infectious disease expert at Peru's Cayetano University.

Not only has Peru a substantial caseload of TB. In some parts of the country, up to 6 percent of TB cases are drug-resistant forms. These need to be tested in more sophisticated laboratories, which are in short supply.

"Very few countries in the world have labs to test for resistance and there aren't resources to get samples into labs and results out of labs (in Peru)," Moore said, adding that samples spent most of the time sitting in refrigerators waiting to get transported here and there.

Such delays can be fatal.