BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Tuberculosis (TB), an airborne disease mainly infecting the lungs, does not sound like a death sentence today as it did in the Victorian age.
However, a latest U.N. report on world TB control shows that progress in TB control has slowed down. Even the slogan chosen for the 2008 World TB Day, which falls on the coming Monday, is the somewhat low key statement "I am stopping TB."
GLOOMY NEWS
According to the 12th annual WHO report on global TB control, between 2005 and 2006, the average rate at which new TB cases were detected increased by 3 percent, while the number dropped by half compared with figure between 2001 to 2005.
There were 9.2 million new cases of TB and an estimated 1.5 million people died from the disease in 2006, the most recent year for which data were available.
In February, a WHO's largest survey to date on the scale of drug resistance in TB indicated that multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) has been recorded at the highest rates ever while extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), a virtually untreatable form of the respiratory disease, has been recorded in 45 countries worldwide.
Meanwhile, funding became another headache for the global war on this old disease. Based on data from 202 countries and territories, the TB budgets are projected to remain flat in 2008 in almost all countries most heavily burdened by the disease. In 90 countries where 91 percent of the world's TB cases occur, there is a deficit of about 1 billion U.S. dollars to meet the annual TB control targets.
MDR-TB, XDR-TB
In WHO's report on MDR-TB released in February, the U.N. agencyput the annual number of new MDR-TB cases worldwide at nearly halfa million, accounting for about 5 percent of the total 9 million new TB cases. MDR-TB is spreading faster and is more widespread than previously thought.
MDR-TB refers to the disease caused by TB bacilli that are resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful anti-TB drugs. It results from inconsistent or partial treatment of TB.
XDR-TB is a form of TB caused by bacteria resistant to virtually all highly effective anti-TB drugs.
Countries in eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Western Pacific regions are singled out by WHO as TB "hotspots."
Following the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in 1991,people in many east European countries and the newly independent states in the Commonwealth of Independent States were having trouble getting sufficient medical care. The rising jobless rates, declining living standards and alcohol abuse all combined to make people in these countries vulnerable than ever to the TB epidemic.
According to WHO statistics, TB patients in parts of eastern Europe and Central Asia are 10 times more likely to have MDR-TB than those in the rest of the world.
The February WHO report shows that the highest MDR-TB rate was recorded in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where 22.3 percent of all new TB cases were reported as multidrug-resistant. MDR-TB accounted for 19.4 percent of new TB cases in Moldova, 14.8 percent in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk and 14.8 percent in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.
Inability to monitor and manage MDR-TB leaves the disease spreading undetected and untreated in many Asia-Pacific countries, while an untreated TB patient can infect 10 to 15 people a year via coughing or sneezing, WHO said Wednesday in a statement in Manila.
For instance, Cambodia and the Philippines each have only three laboratories to diagnose MDR-TB by culture methods, although TB is among the top killers in both countries. Mongolia and Papua New Guinea, both burdened by TB, have only one such laboratory each.
As few countries have the necessary means to diagnose XDR-TB, very little data on the disease are available at present.
HIV/TB
Co-infection by HIV and TB bacillus, described as apocalyptic duo, is fuelling the TB epidemic in many parts of the world, especially Africa. More than a third of people living with HIV are also infected with TB bacillus and the two pathogens work in tandem to end a quarter of a million lives every year, data from the International AIDS Society shows.
In southern Africa, six in 10 people who died of AIDS were virtually killed by TB. Countries in eastern Europe and Central Asia with high MDR-TB prevalence also witness the world's fastest growing HIV infection rates.
Moreover, people living with HIV/AIDS are many times more susceptible to developing all forms of TB. With one's immune system compromised, MDR-TB is left unchecked to spread and kill. In some serious cases, the combination of the two diseases can lead to death within months.
As many medical experts said, people cannot expect to get rid of TB, a disease as old as human civilization, overnight without making great efforts. But they stressed that the disease is treatable and curable and most of the deaths are absolutely preventable.
The success of some formerly TB "hotspots" countries, such as Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine, proves that the fight against the disease requires substantial investments along with sustained implements of TB treatment strategy, they noted.
As for HIV/AIDS, Dr Petr Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, said that clear progress has been made, but "we are far from providing universal access to high-quality prevention, diagnostic, treatment and care services for HIV and TB."
