November 18, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 22, 1424

CAPE TOWN, Nov 17: A rare new “super” strain of tuberculosis that is costly and time-consuming to treat has been identified in South Africa’s Western Cape province, a leading scientist said on Monday.

Tommie Victor, a professor of medical biotechnology at the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town, said a team of scientists and health workers had identified the strain after conducting research in 72 clinics in the Western Cape over the past three years.

“We identified various strains of TB that are new to South Africa, one of them the DRF150, has never been identified anywhere in the world before,” he said. Victor said the team, which had published its findings in the European Journal of Tubercle and Lung Disease, found that DRF150 was resistant to almost all antibiotics, used to treat tuberculosis.

“Usually five drugs are used to combat TB. The DRF150 strain is resistant to four of these,” he said.

Victor said the new strain had its epicentre in the town of George, about 400 kilometres east of Cape Town, where about 60 cases had been identified.

About 20 other cases have been identified in other parts of the Western Cape, but isolates of the new strain have also been found in the South Africa’s Northern Province, the Mpumalanga province and in Nairobi.

Last year 224,420 cases of tuberculosis were reported in South Africa.

Ordinary TB costs about 200 rand to treat, with patients having to take antibiotics over six months.—AFP