WHO Unveils Revolutionary Test For Rapid Detection Of Drug-Resistant TB

Multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) can now be diagnosed within hours instead of months, with the help of a new test, unveiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday.

5 percent or 450,000 of the nine million TB cases detected each year, around the world are resistant to first-line drugs. Early diagnosis of the disease could help significantly improve the treatment and prevent the spread of the airborne infection.

Tuberculosis claims 1.5 million lives each year and is the world’s second-most-fatal infectious disease after AIDS, according to the WHO.

The latest test can determine directly from a sample of patient's salivadefine, if the tuberculosis bacteria can be treated with the two main antibiotics, isoniazid and rifampicin.

“The new test is revolutionary,” said Dr. Mario C. Raviglione, W.H.O.’s director of tuberculosis control, because “it changes completely the way we will be dealing with MDR-TB.”

Rapid and accurate detection of cases is a major obstacle in tuberculosis control. The new test was described by telephone on Monday by officials from the W.H.O. and three other international health groups: the Stop TB Partnership, Unitaid and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, or FIND.

Earlier, the patients’ saliva samples had to be incubated for almost about two months to let the causative organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis grow and be tested against different antibioticdefine compounds.

The test developed by Hain Lifescience and Innogenetics, is a big step in the fight against tuberculosis.

Wrong prescription of antibiotics can worsen drug resistance problems and cause XDR-TB, an untreatable form that has already been noted in 49 countries.

The Germany-based Hain Lifescience is also developing a test to diagnose XDR, which is still in an experimental stage, a WHO spokesman said.

Like drug-sensitive TB, the Drug-resistant TB can be transmitted through coughing, sneezing, singing and other activities of an infected individual. The treatment may require two years of administration of drugs that are much more costly than the first-line regimen.

The test, called a line probe assay, costs less than $8. The WHO announced over that the next four years, it will be available in more than a dozen countries, under a program supported by the agency’s partners.

The $26.1 million initiative will be offered in Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Myanmar, Moldova, Lesotho, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Georgia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Bangladesh, and Azerbaijan.

According to the WHO, only 2 percent of patients with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis are diagnosed and treated appropriately. The recent action, along with easier availability and lower prices of second-line antibiotics, should help raise the proportion to 15 percent.