/ 22 March 2006

TB claims 1,7-million lives as it keeps its hold on Africa

Most of the world is on target to reduce the impact of tuberculosis (TB), but efforts have yet to bear fruit in Africa where the disease goes hand in hand with Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday.

In its annual report on the global impact of TB, the WHO said the disease claimed 1,7-million lives in 2004 and that there were almost nine million new infections.

The Americas, South-East Asia and the Western Pacific regions are all expected to reach targets set out by WHO member governments, the agency said.

These centre on detecting 70% of all TB cases and successfully treating 85%.

The WHO said that 26 countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam, which are two of the worst affected, have already met the campaign target.

It said five others — Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia and Myanmar — are also believed to have done so, but that the 2005 data needed to confirm their success will not be available until the end of 2006.

”The trends and progress are clear and positive,” said WHO chief Dr Lee Jong-wook, who is a TB expert.

”Even in low-income countries with enormous financial constraints, programmes are operating effectively and producing results,” Lee told reporters. ”However, the figures released in this report still make grim reading. There is no magic bullet.”

The global number of cases is still rising by about 1% a year, the study found. That is largely because of the grip the disease has on Africa, where people with immune systems weakened by HIV/Aids are more likely to catch and fall sick with TB.

Dr Christopher Dye, of the WHO’s anti-TB campaign, one of the authors of the report, said: ”What we’re calling for is much better collaboration between TB and Aids-control programmes throughout sub-Saharan Africa and indeed elsewhere in the world.”

A drug-resistant strain of TB is also hampering efforts to bring the disease under control in the former Soviet bloc, said the WHO.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) also pointed to concerns in that region, saying that TB rates are believed to be a hundred times higher in prisons than among the rest of the population.

”Within prison walls, where overcrowding increases the vulnerability of detainees, TB — a curable disease — is often fatal. The additional scourge of HIV/Aids makes it even more urgent to tackle the problem,” said the ICRC.

It said prisoners should have equal access to early diagnosis, adequate treatment and follow-up care, as much for their own benefit as for that of the general population.

Dye noted that funding for the global anti-TB campaign is running well behind needs, despite spending increases in many affected countries.

The TB campaign requires $56-billion (â,¬46-billion) over the next decade if it is to meet its targets, which also include halving the disease’s prevalence by 2015, he said.

”If funding streams continue as they have in recent years, we’ll have around $20-billion of that total. So there’s a $30-billion funding gap,” he said. ”I think we can meet the targets for 2015 globally, but it’s going to be very difficult to meet those targets in Eastern Europe and Africa unless we step up efforts.” — Sapa-AFP