DAKAR, 24 March 2009 (IRIN) – Over the past three years, the number of countries reporting cases of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB)- essentially untreatable in the developing world- has grown by almost 25 percent to reach 55 countries, as of 2009 World TB Day.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates about five percent of newly diagnosed cases of tuberculosis (TB) every year is multi-drug resistant (MDR-TB); of these cases, some 60.000 infections are of the fatal, almost impossible to treat variety.
Any type of multi-drug resistance is highly lethal in HIV patients, who are susceptible to developing full-blown TB infections because of their weak immune systems. WHO studies show fatality rates of more than 90 percent in HIV patients infected with XDR-TB.
WHO estimates 1.7 million people died from TB infections in 2007, while 9.2 million were newly infected.
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