Manila, March 23 Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is threatening to reverse the gains made in the control of the disease in the Asia-Pacific region unless bolder steps are taken, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

In a statement ahead of World Stop TB Day on Saturday, WHO noted that drug-resistant TB was already widespread in the Asia-Pacific with high levels documented in such countries as China, Mongolia and the Philippines.

It warned that unless steps were taken to tackle drug-resistant TB, “It will be 200 times more costly to treat and might even become almost impossible to cure.”

The WHO noted that in some countries, the management of multi-drug resistant TB is not yet available or has failed to meet acceptable standards. “Failure to address this threat will mean more deaths and chronic cases of multidrug-resistant TB and more drug-resistant TB.”

The WHO said drug-resistant TB, which does not respond to first-line anti-TB drugs, is just as easily transmissible as ordinary TB and spreads mostly through air from one person to another.

People can also develop or acquire drug-resistant TB because of incorrect, incomplete drug regimens or poor quality drugs as well as by being infected with TB bacteria, already resistant to TB drugs.

In a bid to stress that proper treatment is the most effective way to head off drug-resistant TB, WHO has made the theme of World Stop TB Day this year as “Drug-resistant TB: Treat it. Prevent it.”

“Unless rapid and systematic action was taken to combat tuberculosis, multi-drug-resistant TB threatens to reverse the gains already made in TB control,” warned Shigeru Omi, director of WHO’s Manila-based regional office. “Just one case is enough to set alarm bells ringing.”

Omi urged countries to equip their national TB programmes with “innovative and robust strategies in treating and preventing drug-resistant TB”.

Among steps the WHO is recommending are putting in place a strong drug-resistance surveillance system, establishing adequate laboratory capacity to diagnose multidrug-resistant TB and making services available for treatment free of charge.

Omi said countries must also put in place infection-control policies to prevent the transmission of drug-resistant TB in health facilities, including protecting people at risk, such as health workers and people who are HIV-positive.

He also called for more funding for these health programmes, noting that close to $2 billion is needed to implement high-quality TB control in the region, with more than $200 million needed for multidrug-resistant TB.(DPA)