Key health issues of 2010: drug-resistant TB

From the WHO’s photo story,  2010 in review:  key health issues. Drug-resistant tuberculosis at record high levels In some areas of the world, one in four people with tuberculosis becomes ill with a form of the disease that can no longer be treated with standard drugs regimens, according to WHO’s Multidrug and extensively drug-resistant TB (M/XDR-TB): [...]

Eradicating malaria: UN sets goal for 2015

African leaders and global health experts rallied at the United Nations today to boost access to life-saving bednets and medicines as part of the fight against malaria, aiming to reach the goal of near-zero deaths by 2015. “Partnership is absolutely essential to making progress against malaria, and Africa’s heads of State are fully committed to [...]

New drug-resistant superbug spreading from India

A new superbug could spread around the world after reaching Britain from India and scientists say there are almost no drugs to treat it. (source: Reuters) The new superbug – New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1 – makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics. Almost as soon as the first antibiotic penicillin was introduced in [...]

Access to new test for drug-resistant TB must be improved: WHO expert

A World Health Organization expert called for greater access to a new diagnostic tool for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the Western Pacific and southeast Asia.  The new diagnostic tool reduces the time needed to detect MDR-TB from eight weeks to two hours. Drug-resistant TB emerges when patients fail to follow treatment regimens, take substandard drugs [...]

WHO reports progress in fight against drug-resistant malaria

Efforts to eliminate a drug-resistant strain of malaria near the Cambodian-Thai border have shown signs of success, according to the World Health Organization and local health officials. (reported by AFP) The WHO warned early last year that the emergence of parasites resistant to artemisinin along the Cambodia-Thai border could “seriously undermine” efforts to bring the [...]

WHO report: drug resistant TB at record levels

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is now at record levels with Asia bearing the brunt of the epidemic, says the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) in a recent report. In some parts of the world, one in four people with TB becomes ill with a form of the disease that can no longer be treated with [...]

Malaria parasite’s resistance to top drug grows

Artemisinin, derived from the sweet wormwood shrub, is the best drug available but misuse and over-prescription have led to the parasite becoming resistant to it. Counterfeit antimalarial drugs have also been a major cause of deaths.