Speaking at the launch of the World Health Organisation’€™s Global Tuberculosis Control Report, Billo said that TB very often fell between the cracks even though it was a critical problem in many countries, including the former Soviet Union, Russia and Asia.

The WHO report reveals that in 2008 there were an estimated 440 000 multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB cases worldwide, however only 12% or 30 000 of these cases were notified globally and treated in accordance with international guidelines. Also, only half of the 36 high-burden countries have the capacity to diagnose drug-resistant TB.  

Billo said they were receiving increasing reports of TB drug stock outs in several countries and that this would fuel a drug-resistant epidemic. Interrupting TB treatment often leads to the patient developing a drug-resistant strain.

In South Africa there have been increasing reports of TB drug stock outs, especially at primary health care level.

Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the World Health Organisation’€™s Stop TB department said that less than 10 percent of drug-resistant TB cases were diagnosed, especially in the hard-hit Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union countries where 28 percent of all new cases are situated.

In another development researchers at The Union conference disclosed that over four million people, mostly children under five in developing nations, die every year of acute respiratory infections (ARI) that can be cured with a cheap antibiotic or prevented with a simple vaccine.

Yet, the development of new antibiotics has slowed to a crawl as drug companies focus on lifestyle diseases in richer nations which require chronic medication.

Released yesterday (SUBS: THURS), the Acute Respiratory Infection Atlas reveals that ARIs, which include pneumonia, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, are the third largest cause of mortality in the world and the top killer in low- and middle-income countries.

At a press briefing yesterday (SUBS: THURS), author of the atlas Dr Neil Schluger pointed out that 20% of all child deaths annually were due to ARIs, between 20 and 40 percent of all child hospitalisations were due to ARIs while it was also the most common reason for people accessing health care services.

* Health-e is reporting from The Union conference in Berlin thanks to support from the National Press Foundation and The Union.