As with other Asian countries,
Mongolia is facing increases in tuberculosis cases. At the same time,
Mongolia has only one laboratory in the country to assist in the diagnosis
and battle to treat the deadly infection.
The most recent figures, dating
from 2006, indicated 4,893 new cases of tuberculosis were diagnosed
in Mongolia. At the same time, 4,962 Mongolians were listed as already
living with confirmed cases of tuberculosis.
Of special concern to world
health officials are Mongolia’s close neighbors which suffer from
some of the world’s highest levels of drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis.
Such cases are mainly found
in the states of the former Soviet Union.
The World Health Organization
has said that a vast majority of drug-resistant TB cases go undiagnosed
and untreated in Asia as a result of inadequate laboratories.
Most developing countries rely
almost exclusively on the 125-year-old microscopy method to confirm
TB cases; however, drug-resistant TB must be diagnosed with "culture
methods," which are more expensive and complex, WHO said.
Shigeru Omi, WHO regional director,
called drug-resistant TB in the Asia-Pacific region a "serious
situation," adding, "Outbreaks of multi-drug resistant TB
are going unnoticed constantly." He noted that without "adequate
laboratory support, we don't know what drugs still work. We don't even
know the true scale of the problem.
Pieter Van Maaren, WHO's Western
Pacific regional adviser said, "Countries need to do more than
upgrade laboratories," adding that labs "have long been neglected,
suffering from a shortage of funds, trained personnel and quality assurance
systems."
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