WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization and the World Bank, as part of a coalition, on Tuesday launched a $9.3 billion plan to crack down on tuberculosis, a disease killing 2 million people each year.
However, officials warned that the project has an estimated $4.5 billion funding short fall over the next five years and appealed to governments in the developed and developing world to fill that gap.
``The plan that we are launching here today ... will enable hundreds of thousands of people with TB to have access to cost effective treatment for their curable illness,'' said Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the WHO at a press conference.
Around 8 million people are infected with tuberculosis every year and the bank and WHO warn that infections are rising at an alarming rate.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are among the 22 countries which share almost 80 percent of the global tuberculosis burden. The flood of refugees from bombed-out Afghanistan to the borders of the two countries present a risk that even more people will fall victim to the disease.
The Stop TB Partnership, which comprises more than 120 groups, including the bank and the WHO, hopes to expand access to Directly Observed Treatment Strategy (DOTS), the internationally accepted strategy for TB treatment.
DOTS, when a health worker delivers the antibiotics and watches the patient take them, has greatly increased the cure rate for TB. The medicines cost as little as $10 for complete treatment.
MORE CASH NEEDED
But the plan needs to fill the financing gap and Brundtland urged countries to participate. She was highly critical of those nations that have not been paying the recommended 0.7 percent of gross domestic product toward development funding.
``It (the $4.5 billion) is not something out of reach,'' she said. ``It is the people who are not paying who have to get a little up from their low chairs and pay a little more.''
Some of the richest countries in the world, like the United States, fail to meet the development target while a handful of countries, particularly those in Scandinavia, consistently beat this target.
Worldwide development assistance now stands at around $50 billion a year, she said. This is the equivalent of 0.22 percent of global GDP, well short of the 0.7 percent objective.
Development funding is also crucial in reducing poverty, which can help spread diseases like TB.
``A public health threat communicated between people is much more of a threat in poor populations ... with all the difficulties of a life which doesn't protect you from infection,'' Brundtland said.
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