WHO Unveils Costly Plan to Tackle Deadly Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

A recent report by the World Health Organization warns that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis could become a pandemic and kill thousands in Western Europe if not dealt with properly. WHO released a plan to diagnose 85 percent of the tuberculosis patients across Europe rapidly and treat at least 75 percent of them by the end of 2015. It says the action plan can prevent 263,000 cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and the more lethal extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis between 2011 and 2015. The report suggested only 32 percent of European tuberculosis patients are treated properly and the rest discontinue medication which allows the infection to become drug-resistant. Every year more than 80,000 new cases of tuberculosis are reported in Western Europe, but the number is much higher worldwide. With about 440,000 new patients around the world every year, immediate action is needed to keep contain the disease. Tuberculosis is still an epidemic that kills 1.7 million people annually across the globe. Experts fear the disease might take a more serious form as existing medicines fail to limit the disease and people become complacent. Eastern Europe has the highest level of infection, while London, in Western Europe, has the highest TB rate of any capital city. Both forms of the disease fail to respond to standard anti-tuberculosis drugs, making them much more complex and costly to treat. WHO estimates its plan will cost $5 billion. It said that if the plan is fully implemented 127,000 people will be successfully treated for drug-resistant TB and 120,000 deaths will be averted by 2015.