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WHO representatives are expected in South Africa next month to evaluate whether the country qualifies for discounted drugs that combat drug-resistant tuberculosis. The WHO committee will assess whether South Africa is correctly managing its current supply of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis drugs.
“The concern is not only the drugs, it is also ensuring these drugs are not misused,” he said. “We can’t afford to have people who have also developed a resistance to the second-line drugs,” Refiloe Matji, head of South Africa’s TB control programme said.
WHO, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Harvard University Medical School have led efforts to increase access to high-quality, second-line drugs meant to fight mutated, drug-resistant strains of the bacteria that causes TB. Drug-resistant strains of TB developed because patients prematurely stopped treatment. The success rate for TB treatment is almost 100 percent if patients continue with the full six-month course, but multidrug-resistant TB has a lower survival rate.
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