Search This Blog

WHAT'S NEW IN TUBERCULOSIS

Monday 5 November 2007

South Africa projected increase in XDR-TB rates

Without new interventions, cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in rural South Africa will increase dramatically over the next five years, according to a study published 27 October in The Lancet. The study, which modelled the effect of various infection control measures on the spread of XDR-TB in the rural community of Tugela Ferry in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, suggests that infection rates will increase from 194 cases in 2007 to an estimated average of 234 cases a year by 2012. Multidrug-resistant TB will also increase from 352 cases in 2007 to 425 a year over the same period. They estimate that 72––96 per cent of all new XDR-TB cases in Tugela Ferry will occur in people infected with HIV. The study suggests that a combination of controls —— including using masks, reducing hospitalisation time, improving ventilation and rapid drug resistance testing —— could avert almost half the predicted XDR-TB cases by 2012 at Tugela Ferry and at similar resource-limited hospitals around the country.
http://tinyurl.com/2tadul

No comments: