Drug resistant TB cases are 'underestimated'

The World Health Organization has estimated that at least three-quarters of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases have not been detected.

The news comes from the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest Global Tuberculosis Report. The report suggests that less than 25 percent of drug resistant cases of tuberculosis have been detected in 2012. This prevalence means that scientists are are still very far away from making real progress against this killer disease.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis may infect any part of the body, but most commonly occurs in the lungs. Globally, tuberculosis is the second most common cause of death from infectious disease (after those due to HIV/AIDS).

Commenting on the report, Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO Global TB program, said to Nature magazine: "the debt toll of tuberculosis, a disease that is preventable and curable, is far too high."

There is a positive that can be drawn from the report: the rate of new tuberculosis (TB) cases and the percentage of people who die from the disease has continued to decline.

Posted by Tim Sandle