WHO finds global rise in drug-resistant TB
April 7th, 2008 Posted by: Dr. Dobson
Washington — About 5% of the 9 million new cases of tuberculosis diagnosed each year worldwide are now resistant to multiple drugs, the highest rate ever recorded, according to a World Health Organization report.
The report, released on Feb. 26, also found that extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, a virtually untreatable form of the disease, infects people in 45 countries. Although the United States has had relatively few cases of resistant strains of the disease — 47 cases of XDR-TB were found in a retrospective analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 1993 to 2006 — the potential for its spread is great.
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