Russian Tuberculosis Most Resistant in the World

Information gathered by the World Health Organization and other groups between 2000 and 2002 indicates the presence of strains of tuberculosis (TB) that are resistant to one or more standard drugs in virtually all of the countries surveyed, with particularly high levels in Russia

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The most recent data analysis from the Global Project on Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance reveals that just 3 of the 79 countries surveyed (Andorra, Iceland, and Malta) had no drug-resistant TB, according to the report in The Lancet.

Among the new cases of TB that arose in 76 countries surveyed, the median prevalence of drug-resistant TB was 10.2 percent, the report indicates.

Findings from the study, which was conducted by the WHO's Dr. Mario Raviglione and colleagues, also indicate that roughly 424,000 cases of "multidrug-resistant" TB emerged in 2004. More than half of these cases occurred in Russia, China and  India.

Russia and Botswana showed the most significant increases in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant, with TB almost completely resistant in these two countries, whereas Hong Kong and the US showed significant drops in multidrug-resistant TB.

Bureau Report