101. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Eastern Europe: still on the increase?
- Author
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Hans Kluge, Giovanni Battista Migliori, Masoud Dara, Pierpaolo de Colombani, and Mario C. Raviglione
- Subjects
Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine ,Economic growth ,Tuberculosis ,business.industry ,Mycotoxicosis ,International health ,Disease ,medicine.disease ,World health ,Environmental protection ,Animals, Domestic ,Action plan ,medicine ,Animals ,National level ,Imprisonment ,business ,Socioeconomic status - Abstract
The recently published World Health Organization (WHO) 2011 Global Report [1] provides important new information on the status of the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic and better estimates are now available on different indicators of TB control. These were possible thanks to new methodologies used to measure the disease, producing more precise figures on mortality, number of children orphaned by TB, budget needs and financial gaps. Overall, a clearer picture of TB in general, and multidrug-resistant (MDR)- and extensively drug-resistant (XDR)-TB in particular, is now available to guide the necessary national and international public health response [1–4]. A major response to this is that of the WHO Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen, Denmark), which has recently prioritised MDR-TB prevention and control by developing a consolidated 5-yr action plan. The action plan and its resolution were endorsed at the 61st Regional Committee in Baku, Azerbaijan in September 2011. The plan envisages identifying and addressing the causes leading to emergence of drug-resistant TB in the region [5]. A complex interplay of factors, such as irrational drug policies, and social and clinical determinants ( e.g. HIV infection, imprisonment, migration and socioeconomic factors), are driving the emergence and the spread of MDR-TB and XDR-TB [6, 7]. Surveillance of drug resistance is a major tool to document the situation at the national level, and the trends in performance of TB care and control efforts, as long as three simple …
- Published
- 2012