New strains of drug-resistant TB cause for concern in Canada

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Health workers in the United States have detected new strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to many of the popular treatments.

And medical officials in Canada say while similar strains do not appear to have made in-roads here, the situation is cause for concern.

"The answer to the question 'Is it alarming?' Yes. "Is it a huge problem in Canada?' No," said Dr. Anne Fanning, Director of Tuberculosis control for the province of Alberta.

In the last three years, drug-resistant forms of TB have cropped up in 17 states. Disease rates have shot up in some of the poverty-stricken inner cities where unhealthy living conditions have given the bacteria a new public foothold.

One strain, which has appeared mainly in people suffering from AIDS, resists seven of the roughly 12 drugs used to treat the disease, according to American news reports.

The number of reported TB cases in Canada has remained relatively stable at around 2,000 cases a year since the mid-1980s.

While the majority of new cases are found in recent Asian immigrants, about 20 per cent arise in the Native community. Other high-risk groups include the elderly, the urban poor and HIV/AIDS patients.

Federal officials say evidence suggests an increasing number of Canadian cases are resistant to between one and three of the conventional anti-TB drugs. Ten years ago, six per cent of all cases were resistant to one drug.

"We haven't seen the rise like the one in the United States. But we would like to see the numbers go down," said Dr. Donna Holton, a senior official with the federal government's Laboratory Centre for Disease Control.

Drug resistant cases in Canada have been able to dodge one to three of the conventional medications, leaving doctors with several treatment avenues.

There were 173 reported cases of tuberculosis in Alberta last year, Fanning said. Out of that total, 17 cases showed resistance to one of the conventional drugs. A further five were able to fend off two forms of treatment.

The federal government is launching a nationwide survey to see if there are patterns of resistance in Canadian cases and to determine risk factors associated with resistant cases.

A key factors-in the development of resistance disease forms is the failure to people to finish the year-long regimen of medication, Fanning and Holton said.