Nov 24, 2006 4:15 pm US/Pacific
Drug-Resistant TB Spreads In S. Africa
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) ―
More than 300 cases of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) have been confirmed across South Africa, the national health department said Thursday.
XDR-TB is defined by the World Health Organization as TB which is resistant to the main first-line TB drugs and to three or more of the six second-line drugs.
The patients "are in the hospitals, they are on treatment," the South African Press Association quoted the health department's head of TB, Dr. Lindiwe Mvusi, as saying.
Some patients have died, Mvusi said, but could not say how many.
The health department recorded 263 cases in KwaZulu-Natal, where the strain was first identified earlier this year.
The disease is complicated by the presence of HIV/AIDS.
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