Kigali, 1 September 2009 -- WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has warned of widespread development of drug resistance related to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and proposed concrete measures to address this emerging threat to public health in the Region.

"This issue (of drug resistance) must be addressed before the situation gets out of hand", Dr Sambo told delegates to the 59th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa which entered its second day in Kigali on Tuesday.

The Regional Director attributed drug resistance related to the three killer diseases to a number of factors including health system challenges related to limited access to health services, poor procurement and supply management systems; inadequate laboratory infrastructure as well as logistics and human resources constraints.

Dr Sambo stated that drug resistance related to HIV/AIDS was expected even among appropriately treated and compliant individuals because of patients' need for life-long antiretroviral treatment and the high HIV replication and mutation rates.

He explained that Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR - TB) and Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR - TB) were on the rise principally because of inadequate or poorly administered treatment regimens.

He added that with regard to malaria, widespread resistance to chloroquine and sulphadoxine - pyrimethanine had led to a change of treatment policy to artemesimin-based combination therapy (ACT). It is therefore necessary to ensure prudent use of ACTs to avoid development of drug resistance.

Dr Sambo proposed a nine-point action plan for countries to address the widespread development of drug resistance related to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.

He recommended that Member States should:

Develop human resource capacity for prevention and management of drug resistance
Strengthen national and sub-national health laboratory networks
Establish and sustain sub-regional networks for drug resistance monitoring
Strengthen procurement and supply for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria medicines
Set up drug resistance and drug efficacy monitoring systems
Implement administrative, environmental and personal protection infection control measures for MDR - and XDR-TB
Advocate for research and development of new diagnostic tools and medicines, and
Mobilize financial resources for supporting implementation of drug resistance actions in the context of health system strengthening.
For more information, please contact :

Technical contact: Dr Rufaro Chatora; Email: chatorar [at] afro.who.int 
Tel: +47 241 39 240

Media contact: Samuel Ajibola; Email: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int 
Tel: +47 241 39378