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 Although the 33 targeted countries, 21 of them in Europe, have
relatively low rates of infection, the disease still kills 10,000
people a year there - predominantly homeless people, migrants,
prisoners, drug users, heavy drinkers or people with HIV/AIDS - the
WHO said.
It is in these communities that industrialized countries including
the United States could pilot approaches to a disease that is both
preventable and curable that could then be transferred to poorer
countries, Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Global TB
Programme, told a news briefing.
The goal is to reduce the infection rate by a factor of 10 to fewer
than 10 new TB cases per million people per year by 2035 in each of
the 33 countries, and to effectively eliminate it by 2050.
"We are after, really, is finding what we call trailblazers or model
countries that would embark in a resolute way on this campaign
against tuberculosis, proving that it is indeed possible to get to
elimination level," Raviglione said.
The WHO strategy involves broader screening for both active and
latent TB infections in high-risk groups, funding high-quality
health services, and investing in new drugs, vaccines and diagnostic
tests.
GROWING DRUG RESISTANCE
Common symptoms of TB are coughing with sputum and blood at times,
chest pains, weakness, weight loss and fever. But the disease, which
is transmitted through the air, can take years to develop, and it is
also vital to test as early as possible to determine if a person has
a drug-resistant form.
Of the 155,000 annual new cases of tuberculosis in the target
countries, about 500 are multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB), caused by an
extreme superbug form of the bacterium that does not respond to the
most powerful first-line drugs.
But worldwide, China, India and South Africa are among the hardest
hit by TB.
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The WHO estimates that 8.6 million people developed TB in 2012 and
1.3 million died. Some 450,000 fell ill with dangerous superbug
strains in 2012, and up to 2 million people worldwide may be
infected with drug-resistant TB by 2015, it says.
Raviglione singled out Russia for its high rates of MDR, which he
called a "disaster situation" that poses a threat to Western Europe.
Standard treatment for TB usually includes a mix of four antibiotic
drugs over a period of six months. MDR-TB can take 18 to 24 months
to treat and cost up to $100,000 in rich countries.
But research efforts are already bearing some fruit.
Raviglione said about 12 promising vaccines were being tested,
mostly by U.S. or UK companies, and some could be on the market by
2022.
The first new TB treatment in more than 40 years, Johnson &
Johnson's bedaquiline, was approved in 2012 for use on
drug-resistant TB, and in 2013 the European Medicines Agency
recommended granting conditional marketing approval for delamanid, a
treatment for MDR being developed by Japan's Otsuka.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
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