Drug-resistant ‘white plague’ spreading undetected as cases missed | UK | News
The UK and Europe are facing a latent “white plague” or tuberculosis crisis, with health services failing to detect or treat one in five people infected with the disease, the World Health Organization has said.
New figures clearly reveal the extent of the problem. An estimated 204,000 people will contract tuberculosis in WHO’s European Region in 2024. Fewer than 162,000 have been identified by health systems so far; tens of thousands of people were left without diagnosis or treatment and were free to unknowingly transmit the infection to others.
WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge reportedly said: “One in five people with tuberculosis in the European Region are still missed by health services. This is not just a failure in detection, but a missed chance to treat earlier, prevent suffering and stop further transmission.”
Drug-resistant emergency
No matter how bad the detection failure, a parallel crisis may be even more difficult to contain. The joint report, published with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control on Monday, finds that drug-resistant tuberculosis is taking a firm toll across the continent.
According to government reports, nearly one in four new tuberculosis cases in Europe now involve a strain that is resistant to standard drug treatments; This rate dwarfs the global average of 23 percent at 3.2 percent. Fighting such strains requires longer, more complex treatment courses and has a significantly higher mortality rate than ordinary tuberculosis.
Europe’s tracking systems are also making matters worse, the Express understands. It is claimed that a fifth of patients who start treatment stop monitoring within a year, giving resistant strains the breathing space they need to spread.
Who faces the greatest danger?
According to The Telegraph, WHO’s European Region is a large geographical area covering 53 countries; A region consisting of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which includes the 27 EU member states as well as Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. All of these shoulder a heavy burden of TB.
Within this population, certain groups are particularly exposed. Those held in prisons face tuberculosis infection rates up to 13 times those seen in the community. The report notes that young children, especially those under five, are also among the most vulnerable groups.
The BCG vaccination program is said to provide some degree of protection, but is generally administered only to children living in areas with the highest TB rates.
What does TB do and how does it spread?
Unlike some infectious diseases, tuberculosis is not easily passed from person to person. It spreads in airborne droplets, but usually only takes root after sustained indoor contact with someone carrying the infection.
Warning signs such as a persistent cough, chest pain, persistent fatigue, and gradual weight loss tend to bother patients and are easily overlooked or ignored until the disease progresses.
Historically, the disease carried a terrifying nickname: the ‘white plague’. Coined in the 18th and 19th centuries, the term reflected the hollow, bloodless appearance of those consumed by the disease; It was a stark visual contrast to the dark scars left by the bubonic plague from which the Black Death took its name.
The ambition of a decade is slipping away
WHO has set itself the goal of reducing tuberculosis cases in the European Region by 80 percent and deaths by 90 percent in this decade. Current progress makes this goal unattainable.
“We have made progress… but we are still not moving fast enough, and drug-resistant tuberculosis remains one of the most serious threats we face,” Dr Kluge said.
The report’s authors are pushing for earlier and more aggressive case finding, faster treatment initiation and follow-up systems, before the gap between claim and reality widens even further.
