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March 31, 2009
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| Over 200 people were infected by a tuberculosis superbug last year, according to the national health protection agency. A report submitted to the Health, Welfare and Family Affairs Committee on Sunday by the National Health Insurance Corporation also said an additional 2,387 people in the country suffered from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, or MDR-TB, which results from acquired tolerance of antibiotics such as isoniazid and rifampicin. Those 238 patients with extensive resistance TB, or XDR-TB, not only are resistant to those antibiotics but also to quinolones, synthetic broad-spectrum antibiotics developed recently. It is the first time the organization made the number of drug-resistant TB patients public. XDR-TB is also known as “super-tuberculosis.” Patients who are infected with XDR-TB have a high possibility of dying, since treating them is very difficult. Doctor Shim Tae-sun, who specializes in respiratory failure at Asan Medical Center in Songpa, eastern Seoul, said half of the 75 super-TB patients he and his research team studied during the past seven years died of the disease. “XDR-TB cannot be completely wiped out using a combination of antibiotics and surgery,” said Doctor Pai Hyun-joo from the internal medicine department at Hanyang University’s medical school. “Most people rely on drug therapy to prevent symptoms from getting any worse throughout their lives because a total cure is impossible.” Meanwhile, a bill that would provide separate treatment facilities for sufferers of super-TB is still pending at the National Assembly. The legislation was proposed by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is charged with protecting the public from various diseases and fostering a healthful environment, in February of 2008. The state-run institute failed to get a proposed 30 billion won ($21.6 million) budget this year to treat and separately house patients suffering from the disease. It also planned to use some of the funds to help out the patients with daily expenses. Medical experts say that around 10 percent of all patients infected with resistant tuberculosis suffer from the more virulent XDR-TB strain. By Ahn Hai-ri [smartpower@joongang.co.kr] |
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