With Cholera ravaging the earthquake ravaged lands of Haiti, the World Health Organization (WHO) now reports that drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis are making rounds in Europe, and has made the London borough of Brent, home to Wembley Stadium and the headquarters of brewer Diageo Plc, western Europe’s tuberculosis capital. More new cases each year arise in Brent than Karonga district in Malawi, a rural area still battling leprosy, according to the U.K.’s Health Protection Agency.
The disease “is evolving with a vengeance,” according to WHO spokesmen, who have announced a plan to address the pandemic involving more than two years to treat with $16,000 worth of drugs. Anticipated isolation hospital costs and medical care could bring total care costs above $300,000.
But WHO reports that its $5 billion plan would actually save $7 billion in treatment costs, and would save 120,000 lives by 2015, by focusing on raising awareness of the disease’s symptoms among doctors and patients, getting those who contract it the right drugs immediately, and tracking them to make sure they take the medication.