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New Incurable Tuberculosis Strain Has Spread to Canada
Vancouver, B.C. - March 20, 2007 – Despite the low incidence of tuberculosis in Canada, 1,600 new cases are reported every year. We must not be complacent says the BC Lung Association. A dangerous form of tuberculosis (TB) that resists treatment with both first-line and second-line drugs is spreading, spurring an urgent global search for new ways to stop the ancient scourge. In January 2007, several drug-resistant cases were reported in Toronto.
Once called "consumption" or the "white plague," tuberculosis killed hundreds of thousands of people at the beginning of the 20th century. By mid-century, powerful drugs were developed to treat it, and the incidence of TB declined.
Now, TB is making an unwelcome comeback. Not only is the disease reappearing among certain high-risk populations, it is also developing multi-drug-resistant strains that are extremely difficult to cure.
Public health officials have not yet released firm statistics with regard to extensively drug resistant or XDR-TB incidence. To date, all but a few cases of TB reported in Canada have been drug-responsive.
“While few cases of XDR-TB have been reported in Canada, numbers of drug-resistant TB patients are escalating worldwide. The TB germ does not respect national or provincial borders,” said Dr. Kevin Elwood, Director of TB Control for the BC Centre for Disease Control and a member of the BC Lung Association’s Medical Advisory Board.
Highly contagious, TB spreads through the air. If not treated, each person with active TB infects, on average, 10-15 others. One in 10 are resistant to at least one first-line drug and those that are resistant to two the first-line drugs are termed multi-drug resistant or MDR-TB. Statistics on new cases of extensively drug resistant or XDR-TB are not yet available.
TB travels into Canada as people travel back and forth to high incidence countries, explains Elwood, with almost two thirds of all new TB cases in Canada occurring in people born outside of the country. The remaining cases appear primarily within populations of First Nations and inner city residents.
“The only way to currently prevent increases in drug resistant TB is a better drug delivery program that ensures patients take every dose of all the prescribed drugs so that they complete prescribed treatment. It is when TB treatment drugs are misused or mismanaged, that drug-resistant TB develops,” continued Elwood.
“While the possibility of a significant TB resurgence in Canada exists, there is no evidence that TB in the foreign-born has a significant spillover effect on the Canadian-born population, so while we must continue to screen immigrants and visitors from endemic countries, there is little justification for alarm at this point.”
Scott McDonald, Executive Director of the BC Lung Association said, “The best defence against TB is a first-class control and prevention program. Luckily, in British Columbia, we are very fortunate to have one of the best programs, and some of the world’s leading experts, operating right here.”
March 24, 2007 marks World TB Day. This year’s theme is ‘TB Anywhere is TB Everywhere’. According to the U.N. and Red Cross officials, TB today poses the most serious threat since World War II.
For more information, please contact:
Scott McDonald, Executive Director, BC Lung Association
T 604.731.5864, or 1.800.665.LUNG (5864)
Katrina van Bylandt, Communications Manager, BC Lung Association
T 604. 731.5864, or 1.800.665.LUNG (5864)