Figures show drug-resistant TB at highest level

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is at its highest rate ever, and the fight against worldwide TB has been put in the spotlight.

World Tuberculosis Day was held on Monday with the pledge of "I am stopping TB".

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon said in a press statement: "If we are to prevent a virtually untreatable tuberculosis epidemic, we must tackle the roots of the problem: poor services, poor supplies, poor prescribing and poor use of drugs."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Stop TB department has found cases of TB in 81 countries and that drug-resistant TB, a virtually untreatable form of the disease, has been recorded in 45 countries.

Mr Ban said that despite advances being made against TB, they are not developing at the same rate of population growth.

WHO figures have estimated 9.2 million new cases and 1.5 million deaths during 2006, the latest year for which figures are available.

The figures also say one in four cases of drug-resistant TB is found in India, where there is a high relapse rate of 35 per cent.