Untreatable TB threat 'apocalyptic scenario'

Untreatable TB threat 'apocalyptic scenario'
30,000 infected annually now, but toll could become 8 million 'time bombs'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: June 24, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The World Health Organization is appealing for billions of dollars in funding to avert the apocalypse en route if a virtually untreatable form of tuberculosis that already infects 30,000 people a year is left unchecked.

The TB, called XDR-TB for extensively drug resistant, is virtually immune to currently available antibiotics, turning aside the effects of both front-line and secondary drugs, officials have said.

It has been in the news of late because of an American airline passenger, Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta, Ga., lawyer, who was diagnosed, then traveled to Europe for his wedding, and returned, on commercial airliners, potentially exposing hundreds of people to the frequently fatal disease.

He now is being treated at a special center in Denver that deals with cases of tuberculosis.

"XDR-TB is a threat to the security and stability of global health. This response plan identifies costs, milestones and priorities for health services that will continue to have an impact beyond its two-year time line," said WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan.

The organization is appealing for $2.15 billion in funding to develop a battle plan – and tools – to fight the drug-resistant TB. It is expected that it would save 134,000 lives over two years, and many more in the future.

The extensively drug resistant TB has been reported in 37 countries in all parts of the world since it first was identified in 2006, the agency said.

"There is somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000, we roughly estimate, cases of extensive drug resistant TB each year," Paul Nunn, coordinator of WHO's Stop TB Department, informed a recent meeting.

The program, called "Global MDR-TB and XDR-TB Response Plan 2007-2008" sets out measures needed to prevent, treat and control those threats. MDR-TB is multiple-drug resistant, while XDR-TB is extensively drug resistant.

Click here for the full story! (may need to disable pop-up blocker)