WHO urges world to fight TB 'super-strains'

"The worst-affected areas are eastern Europe and central Asia, according to a report released by the organization's Global Project on Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance. As many as 14% of new cases in these regions involve multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of the bacterium."

""The former Soviet Union is the MDR capital of the world," says Paul Nunn, a member of the WHO's Stop TB department. A collapse in the region's public-health infrastructure has left Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Russia among the countries most threatened by untreatable TB, he says."

"The researchers are therefore urging countries and public-health charities to invest in DOTS, a WHO scheme to standardize the detection, treatment and reporting of TB cases. The organization has now launched DOTS-Plus, an extension of the scheme that involves the use of alternative drugs to combat MDR strains."