China Finds More Than 200 Deadly Tuberculosis Cases

[Coventina]

Source: Bloomberg

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- China’s health ministry found more than 200 cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, a form of the lung disease that is fatal to half of patients.

The government, which hosts a conference on tuberculosis this week, surveyed 47 million people in 31 provinces in 2007 and 2008 and found that about 30,000 had tuberculosis, Health Minister Chen Zhu said at the meeting in Beijing yesterday.

China has never before acknowledged the presence of the most deadly form of tuberculosis in the country, the World Health Organization said. The WHO, China’s health ministry and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation organized the three-day meeting to galvanize action against the new TB strains.

“China is willing to be transparent about the problem,” said Paul Nunn, coordinator of the TB and HIV drug-resistance unit with WHO’s Stop TB Department. “This of course is necessary to mount an effective public health service response.”



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