Tuberculosis patients in parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are 10 times more likely to have multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) than in the rest of the world, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report.
New data released on 16 March 2004 confirm geographical concentrations of TB drug resistance across the Commonwealth of Independent States. Six out of the top ten global hotspots are: Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, parts of the Russian Federation and Uzbekistan, with drug resistance in new patients as high as 14%.
WHO’s leading infectious disease experts estimate there are 300 000 new cases per year of MDR-TB worldwide. There is also new evidence proving drug resistant strains are becoming more resistant, and unresponsive to current treatments. 79% of MDR-TB cases are now "super strains", resistant to at least three of the four main drugs used to cure TB.
Highest prevalence of MDR-TB coincides with one of the world’s fastest growing HIV infection rates in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Recently the United Nations Development Programme reported more than 1.5 million people living with the virus in the region, compared to just 30 000 in 1995. People whose immune systems are compromised with HIV are many times more susceptible to contracting all forms of TB.
