Europe tuberculosis threat called highest since WWII

GENEVA — Tuberculosis has come back in a new, more deadly form to pose the disease's greatest threat to Europe since World War II, world health officials said Tuesday.

Drug-resistant strains of the disease are lurking just beyond the European Union's borders, in countries where AIDS blossomed following the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to U.N. and Red Cross health officials.

"The drug resistance that we are seeing now is without doubt the most alarming TB situation on the continent since World War II, and our message to EU leaders is: Wake up. Do not delay. Do not let this problem get further out of hand," said Markuu Niskala, secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The high levels of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Baltic countries, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the emergence of a new, extremely drug-resistant strain of TB have led international health officials to create the "Stop TB Partnership in Europe" to fight the epidemic.

Tuberculosis, a respiratory illness spread by coughing and sneezing, is the world's deadliest infectious disease that is curable. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.7 million people died from TB in 2004.

Of the 20 countries in the world with the highest rates of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, 14 are in "the European region," according to a recent global survey by the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

European countries also have the highest rate of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis known as XDR-TB.

"TB has always been low on the European Union agenda. It's a mystery there has been so little concern in addressing the TB epidemic in Europe," said Michael Luhan, an official at the Geneva-based Red Cross federation. "The purpose of this partnership is to stimulate a much greater sense of concern, engagement and commitment on the part of the European Union to address this problem in its own region."

Luhan said the bulk of technical support in the European region and central Asia is currently provided by the United States, which is also a major financial contributor.

"In the last few years, there's been more contribution from EU countries, but they still are a fraction of those provided by countries outside the region," he said.

In Europe, 50 people get sick with TB and eight people die of the disease every hour, said Pierpaolo de Colombani, a WHO tuberculosis expert. About 15 percent of all TB cases in Europe are multi-drug resistant.