An important article in today’s New York Times discusses the spread of XDR-TB, a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. Detected in a South Africa outbreak in 2005, XDR-TB was first reported internationally at the 2006 Toronto AIDS Conference.

From the piece:

“The World Health Organization calls the extremely drug-resistant form “a grave public health threat” because of its potential explosiveness among the millions of H.I.V.-infected people in poor countries. It seems to be a lesser threat among people who do not have H.I.V., though it could be dangerous to the millions with weakened immune systems from treatment for cancer and other diseases.”

“Unfortunately, we do not know much more than a year ago” mainly because “a systematic survey in each of the provinces has not yet started.”

“The outbreak is not limited to Africa. Dr. Paul Nunn, a tuberculosis expert at the World Health Organization… estimated that two-thirds of the XDR-TB cases were from China, India and Russia.”

Read the full article, “Rise of a Deadly TB Reveals a Global System in Crisis,” here, and check back to the ONE Blog for more XDR-TB updates in the coming weeks and months.