The World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed details of a ‘super strain’ of tuberculosis, which is not only resistant to first choice treatment drugs, but also three or more of the six classes of second-line drugs. The news is a worrying development as the emergence of strains that are resistant to the multitude of drugs has gained significant momentum. TB presently causes about 1.7m deaths a year worldwide.
The WHO also recognised the threat of TB amongst people living with HIV/AIDS. Treating the two diseases at the same time is difficult because of negative interactions between some ARVs used to treat HIV/AIDS and TB drugs.
Resistance to anti-TB drugs in populations is a phenomenon that occurs primarily due to poorly managed TB care. Problems include incorrect drug prescribing practices by providers, poor quality drugs or erratic supply of drugs, and also patient non-adherence.
MDR-TB (Multidrug Resistant TB) describes strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to at least the two main first-line TB drugs - isoniazid and rifampicin. XDR-TB, or Extensive Drug Resistant TB (also referred to as Extreme Drug Resistance) is MDR-TB that is also resistant to three or more of the six classes of second-line drugs.
Globally, the WHO estimates there are about 425,000 cases of MDR TB a year, mostly occurring in the former Soviet Union, China and India.
So Big Pharma. Why dont you stop inventing another "me too" antihpertensive/statin/anxiolytic/hypnotic and get on with a real challenge..... or isn't the "market" big enough - yet?!
drugresearcher.com
3 comments:
Answer: It's not profitable. Yet. If you expect Big Pharma to fight disease out of the goodness of their hearts, you're going to be forever disappointed (and angry).
Blame the governments of the industrialized countries who have continually failed to make the investments necessary to fight these "unprofitable" diseases. Everybody talks about helping the struggling people of the Third World. Are you willing to pay the taxes and elect the politicians who will actually do something?
I spotted the "yet"!
Poor people with life-threatening diseases can go away and die from them as far as Big Pharma is concerned. Bring us your rich with migranes or impotence..
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