Highest level of drug-resistant TB found in Europe

The World Health Organisation says the highest levels ever of drug-resistant tuberculosis have been found in Russia and Moldova.

But the agency didn't have data from most of Africa and India, where tuberculosis rates are much higher. Experts said trends in drug-resistant TB in most countries "are still unclear."

In research published in the February edition of WHO's journal, Bulletin, experts reported that about 29 percent of new TB patients in parts of Russia were drug-resistant. They also found 65 percent of previously treated patients in Moldova had resistance problems.

Normally, less than 5 percent of TB cases are drug-resistant.