Experts warn of "growing threat" of fatal strain of TB

by Martin Banks

The findings suggest the economic burden of TB far outweighs the costs of investing in more effective vaccine.

The research is the first study to estimate the costs of the disease in recent years.

Researchers separated the EU countries into two groups based on their gross domestic product (GDP) per person.

For the old EU-15 countries, plus Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia, on average the costs per case were:

• €10,282 for drug-susceptible TB
• €57,213 for multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB
• €170,744 for extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB

For the remaining new EU states, the costs amounted to:

• €3,427 for drug-susceptible TB
• €24,166 for MDR-TB/XDR-TB

Lead author, Roland Diel, professor for Health Economics at the University Hospital Schleswig–Holstein in Kiel, Germany, said: “This is the first time that a comprehensive cost-per-case has been estimated for TB. Without better vaccines, it is unlikely that TB will ever be eliminated.

"An investment of about 560 million is considered necessary to develop a new, effective vaccine in the EU.

“The findings of our study suggest that this investment is essential as the costs of the current economic burden far outweigh the cost of investing in new treatments.”

His comments are echoed by Francesco Blasi, President of the European Respiratory Society, who said: “The figures in this study have shown that the burden of TB on both the economy and on society in Europe is huge, particularly with the increasing problem of drug-resistant strains.

"The widely used BCG vaccine was introduced in 1921; it is out of date and has unpredictable success in preventing TB.

"It is time to invest more of our resources in preventing this debilitating condition.

“It is critical that healthcare professionals and policymakers take note of this new data to understand the impact and burden of diseases. That is why we have produced the White Book, which includes the latest data on over 20 different respiratory diseases in Europe.”

The issue came under the spotlight at an event organised by the European Respiratory Society in the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday where a range of experts lined up to warn of what they called the "growing threat" to public health.

The event was told that in 2012 there were, globablly, 8.6m new cases of TB, resulting in 1.3m deaths. Of these 0.5m affected children (74,000 fatalities) and 2.4m women (410,000 deaths).

Some 120,000 lives a year could be saved if there was earlier diagnosis and better treatment, it was said.

One speaker, Mario Raviglione, of the World Health Organisation, bemoaned the absence of national action plans in member states and said the EU currently lacked the ability to eliminate TB.

Another keynote speaker, Roberto Bertollini, a chief scientist with the WHO, said the incidence of TB in central and eastern European countries was six times higher than in EU countries.

Line Matthiessen, head of the infectious disease unit at the European Commission, said, "There is a growing threat of a re-emergence in Europe of a fatal form of multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB)

The problem, he said, was particularly acute in those states which formerly belonged to the Soviet Union.