Southern African leaders are working with WHO to fight a new health threat, that is particularly dangerous for people with HIV/AIDS: extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis or XDR–TB.
Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Volume 84, Number 12, December 2006, 921-1000.
Countries in southern Africa have moved quickly to draw up a regional strategy for managing and preventing extensively drug-resistant TB. This follows an outbreak in South Africa that demonstrated the high mortality of XDR–TB when associated with HIV infection.
The South African ministry of health called for an urgent meeting with WHO and representatives from other countries in the region in order to develop a regional approach to prevent and control TB, including XDR–TB. Representatives from South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe contributed to the sub-regional framework which builds on the recommendations produced in October by the WHO Global Task Force on XDR–TB.