Tackling TB critical to meeting MDGs
Commenting on the upcoming United Nations meeting to discuss the Millennium Development Goals the partnership said fighting TB was critical to reaching the MDGs.
The statistics are grim: More than 10 million people will die and four million of these will be women – leaving a massive number of orphans.
Multi-drug resistant TB will account for more than two million TB cases. Currently the annual shortage in TB funding amounts to US$3-billion.
Stop TB estimates that over three quarters of TB cases are among those between ages 15 to 54 years ‘an economically active group. A recent World Bank study predicted that TB control could yield massive economic gains for low and middle income countries. Signing onto the Global Plan to Stop TB could see countries with higher TB cases earning 10 times more than they spend on diagnosing and treating TB.
The World Health Organisation states that there were 9,4 million new TB infections in 2008, 3,6 million of these women.
An estimated 1,8 million people died of TB including 500 000 of those with HIV.
As part of the MDGs countries committed to halt and reverse TB incidence by 2015. Attached to this target was to detect 70 percent of infections and treat at least 85 percent. This included halving TB prevalence and mortality rates. Eventually by 2050 TB would lose its status as a public health problem.
However, the picture looks bleak since only 5 percent of those living with HIV were screened for TB in 2008 ‘ globally.
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