There’s an important editorial in the LA Times today about drug-resistant tuberculosis.

A couple of excerpts:

“A new survey by the World Health Organization shows that drug-resistant tuberculosis is even more widespread than had been feared — on average, it’s present in 5% of new TB cases. That’s 500,000 drug-resistant cases a year. If most Americans aren’t concerned by this, it’s because they don’t yet understand that drug-resistant tuberculosis is no longer a disease that threatens mainly HIV and AIDS patients and the Third World poor. It threatens us all. Worldwide, only 8% of TB cases occur in HIV/AIDS patients…

Even after the panic last year caused by Andrew Speaker, the jet-setting honeymooner found to have MDR TB, funding to stop the disease has lagged. The WHO, which gets its money from United Nations member states, estimates it needs $4.8 billion for global TB control. But despite increases in funding from the U.S., Britain and private donors, it still faces a $2.5-billion shortfall.

You can read the full piece here.

A new report on malaria from the World Health Organization outlines some positive news. Among the key findings is that the distribution of bed nets and medications have cut malaria deaths in half in Rwanda and Ethiopia.

From a Washington Post article this afternoon:

“This is the first time we have seen these results with the new tools,” said Arata Kochi, head of malaria programs for WHO.

“This is a genuinely historic achievement,” said Richard G.A. Feachem, former director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. “This is not theoretical. We do not have to wait for a vaccine or new drugs. If we implement today’s technologies aggressively on a national scale, we will have a big impact.”

Two key items in the current “tool kit” are bed nets impregnated with insecticide that lasts three to five years and treatment with at least two drugs. One of them is artemisinin, a compound originally derived from a Chinese herbal medicine.

Read the Washington Post article here. Tomorrow we’ll be able to link to the full report.

-Virginia Simmons

The World Health Organization is warning that unusually wet conditions in southern Africa could cause an increase of malaria infections this year.

From today’s BBC News piece:

“The WHO has urged countries to raise awareness and distribute anti-malaria drugs and insecticide-treated nets…

‘Malaria is a climate sensitive disease and for this time of the year we have experienced uncommonly heavy rainfall and flooding in parts of southern Africa,’ said Joaquim Da Silva, WHO’s Malaria Epidemics & Emergency Officer in the region.”

Read the full piece here.

-Virginia Simmons