TB superbug fears in KZN

2006-09-11 12:24

Johannesburg - Extreme Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) has become endemic in KwaZulu-Natal, the Mercury reported on Monday.

Dr Tony Moll, principal medical officer at the Church of Scotland Hospital in Tugela Ferry, said doctors in his area had been identifying new XDR-TB patients every month since January last year.

"Since March we have identified 10 new patients. The situation seems to be simmering, it's a bad sign," he said.

"What's more worrying is that this has spread across the province and has become endemic to the province."

The outbreak in Tugela Ferry had killed 60 people since January 2005, including eight admitted to hospital with XDR-TB between March and August this year.

XDR-TB is a virulent form of TB which is resistant to the two drugs used to treat multi-drug resistant TB, and to which people with HIV and Aids are particularly susceptible.

Moll said 44 people out of the 53 who had died between January 2005 and March had been HIV-positive.

"It (the 60 people killed thus far) is a very big number, even one is a big number," he said.

"Between 2002 and 2004, 347 patients throughout the world were identified with XDR-TB, and for us in a small rural area to have 60 die is very significant."

- SAPA