NYT
February 27, 2008

Drug-Resistant TB Rates at Record Levels
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

Drug-resistant tuberculosis cases in parts of the former Soviet Union
have reached the highest rates ever recorded globally, the World
Health Organization said Tuesday. The rates could soar even higher,
spreading the potentially fatal disease elsewhere, a top W.H.O.
official said, releasing findings from the largest global survey of
the problem.

The highest rate was in Baku, Azerbaijan, where 22.3 percent of new
tuberculosis cases were resistant to the standard anti-TB drug regimen
during the survey period, from 2002 to 2006. That exceeded the
previous high of 14.2 percent, in Kazakhstan.

Drug-resistant TB is widespread in the Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang
regions of China, where the rates are about 7.25 percent, the W.H.O.
said.