In a statement issued jointly with Medicins Sans Frontieres and the New York Health Research Institute, the British charity called for the world community to provide funds to combat the crisis. All three organizations are piloting modern TB treatments in Russia. Current levels of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Russia are alarming and the economic crisis will exacerbate the problem many times over.
Tuberculosis is an airborne infection that kills three million people each year.
New drug-resistant strains are emerging and the disease has reached epidemic proportions in many poor countries. After nearly being wiped out, it is also re-emerging in some rich countries.