March 25, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1428

UNITED NATIONS: Although most people in the developed world view tuberculosis (TB) as a disease of the past, this curable ailment still kills a human being every 20 seconds.

According to the World Health Organisation’s Global Tuberculosis Control Report 2007, 1.6 million people died of TB in 2005, making it the second most deadly disease in the world after HIV/AIDS.

Lee Reichman, executive director of the New Jersey Medical School National Tuberculosis Institute, said at a press briefing here on Thursday that, “Governments are interested in dramatic epidemics, like avian influenza. However, the avian flu killed 166 people, (but) on a daily basis, TB kills 30 times more people. The priorities of governments are outrageous.”

“We need to continuously express our outrage,” Reichman continued. “We have to take away the common perception that TB only affects minority groups and is therefore not important.”

The areas of the world suffering the most devastating consequences of TB are Africa, Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean regions.

Tuberculosis is contagious and spreads through the air. If left untreated, each person with active TB can infect ten to 15 others a year.

Treatment is a lengthy process. People must return regularly to the hospital or clinic to take the drugs they need. A well-known problem is that some patients stop halfway through their treatment because they’re starting to feel better.

And because health systems in most poor countries are critically under-funded, doctors and health workers do not always give the right prescription or the drug supply is unreliable.

The outcome of inconsistent treatment is that TB bacteria become resistant to almost every major anti-TB drug. So-called multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a form of TB that does not respond to the standard treatments using first-line drugs. MDR-TB is already a worldwide problem.

Most forms of drug-resistant TB are treatable. However, the treatment process is even more extensive than the treatment for normal forms of TB. It can take up to two years of treatment, and is also more expensive. This poses a serious threat to TB control.

“We need to tackle this problem as part of the larger challenge of increasing access to primary health care services. All people, no matter who they are or where they live, should have access to TB diagnosis and treatment as part of a package of general health services that bring multiple health benefits,” said Dr Margaret Chan, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) director-general.

The rate at which people were infected by TB declined somewhat in 2005 compared to the previous year. However, due to world population growth, the actual number of TB victims continued to slowly rise. In 2005, there were an estimated 8.8 million new TB cases. Of the 1.6 million people who died, 195,000 were also infected with HIV.

“We are currently seeing both the fruits of global action to control TB and the lethal nature of the disease’s ongoing burden,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“Almost 60 per cent of TB cases worldwide are now detected, and out of those, the vast majority are cured. Over the past decade, 26 million patients have been placed on effective TB treatment thanks to the efforts of governments and a wide range of partners. But the disease still kills 4,400 people every day.”

Public health experts at the launch of the WHO report emphasised the important role of non-governmental organisations in fighting the disease.

“NGOs must form alliances and fight the worldwide epidemic at its grassroots,” noted Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO’s Stop TB Department. “A coalition of worldwide, national, regional and local NGOs is needed to defeat this major killer.”

If a community is well educated, its members can recognise signs of TB early, help get patients better treatment, and the economic impact of the disease on patients and their families can be mitigated.

The WHO’s “Stop TB Strategy” focuses on empowering communities and their health systems. Although funding to implement the strategy has risen substantially since 2002, to two billion dollars, an additional 1.1 billion will be needed to meet the 2007 funding requirements.

On Thursday, UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro opened a photographic exhibition by the renowned photojournalist James Nachtwey entitled “World Free of TB” at United Nations headquarters.

The pictures depict emaciated TB patients struggling in poor circumstances, giving what are often abstract numbers a human face and underlining how horrifying this disease can be.—Dawn/The IPS News Service