Deadly TB strain seen in Africa now in rich nations

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A new deadly form of tuberculosis spreading through South Africa has now been found in rich nations in Europe as well as Canada and the United States, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

Africa's large AIDS population is at special risk from the particularly virulent strain, known as XDR-TB (extremely drug resistant), which had been documented in 35 countries worldwide, 16 of them this year alone.

"This is an the most urgent thing I have seen in my 15 years of working on tuberculosis," Mario Raviglione, director of the STOP TB program at the World Health Organization. He introduced WHO's TB report, which coincides with the 125th anniversary of the discovery of the microbe that causes TB.

"If it keeps spreading, as it has in South Africa, then we are really in trouble, Raviglione said.

To commemorate World TB Day, Anna Cataldi, an Italian author and U.N. peace messenger, organized a photo exhibit of TB victims by award-winning photographer Jim Nachtwey and spread banners around Manhattan on fighting the disease.

Some 2 billion people worldwide live with TB, an airborne illness that is normally treatable through inexpensive medication. But if the disease is not diagnosed and treated, it can mutate into drug-resistant strains.

In 2005, nearly 9 million people caught tuberculosis and 1.6 million died of it, about the same as the year before, which showed that containment efforts were working, Raviglione said. The epidemic is centered primarily in Asia and in Africa, which accounted for 84 percent of the total.

"The good news is that the global incidence may have peaked," particularly in China, India and Indonesia, he said. "The bad news is that although the incidence has declined (there) is resistance to most powerful first-line drugs and a form of TB that is resistant to second-line drugs."

There are 269 confirmed cases of XDR, first reported in South Africa, with 85 percent of the afflicted expected to die.

NO CURE

Raviglione said the new strain was spotted in rich nations also, such as the United States, Canada, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Sweden, the former Soviet Union and elsewhere.

In the industrialized nations, XDR-TV increased from 3 percent to 11 percent in 2005, WHO said without giving precise numbers of victims.

A cure is not available. As a first step, diagnostics and improved health systems are deemed necessary to treat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and TB simultaneously.

Drug company Eli Lilly is donating $50 million for monitoring and surveillance in South Africa.

The Lilly program builds on a $70 million investment in 2003 when the company allowed companies in South Africa, China, Russia and India to manufacture generic drugs.