New drugs, plan needed to fight killer TB

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Tests and medicines used to diagnose and combat tuberculosis (TB) in poor countries are outdated and ineffective and new treatments must be developed to fight the disease, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.

Strategies being used by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease force medics to work with “archaic tools,” said the Paris-based group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

"Tuberculosis is one of our biggest frustrations,” MSF President Jean-Herve Bradol said in a statement. “At the moment, we cannot properly detect and treat the sick.”

TB infects an estimated 8.7 million people a year and kills 2 million a year despite widespread control efforts.

WHO’s main strategy to control TB, an infectious airborne respiratory illness, is called “Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course” or DOTS, which involves using health professionals to watch patients take their long courses of antibiotics.

DOTS requires sufferers to take drugs - developed 40-60 years ago - over a 6-8 month period and the disease can become resistant if a patient fails to take the full course.

Existing tests used in poor counties to diagnose TB only detected one form of the disease and in the developing world only show up the TB bacteria in half of the people tested.

MSF wants experts to develop easier to use medicines and to produce new, more effective diagnostic tests, an official said. A stronger detection and treatment plan was also needed to fight the dual TB and AIDS epidemic.

TB is the leading cause of death among HIV sufferers, accounting for about 13 percent of AIDS deaths worldwide, according to WHO figures. HIV weakens the immune system which makes it more vulnerable to TB and other diseases.

MSF’s call for a new anti-TB strategy follows other recent criticism of WHO’s plan. Last month, Harvard University researchers said the DOTS plan would have only a modest impact on controlling TB and said new approaches were needed.

The disease is spread by airborne bacteria that settle into the lungs and cause long-term infection. Many people who are infected do not become ill themselves but can spread it.

Tough hygiene and treatment campaigns beat TB back in places such as Europe and North America, but AIDS, with its attacks on the immune system, helped TB make a comeback in the 1990s.

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