World TB Day 2002 - In the News

UN News Wire
Headline: Tuberculosis: New Cases In Russia Down For First Time In Decade
Date: 25 March 2002

Tuberculosis infection rates in Russia fell for the first time in a decade last year, a positive sign that efforts to combat the disease are finally working, health officials said Friday.  The experts were speaking at a news conference ahead of World Tuberculosis Day Sunday.

Wieslaw Jakubowiak, coordinator of the World Health Organization's TB control program in Russia, said Health Ministry statistics show that infection rates have dropped by about 3 percent from 90 new cases per 100,000 people in 2000.

There were still about 342,000 TB cases reported last year, however, including 133,000 new ones.  Close to 80 people a day die from the disease, according to Health Ministry statistics.  "The number of new TB cases is no longer increasing, but the figures are still high," said Mikko Vienonen, special representative of the WHO director general in Russia.

Among those most vulnerable to contracting new cases of TB are the unemployed, people who live on the street and migrants.  "Eighty percent to 85 percent of the problem is due to social factors," said Mikhail Perelman, the Health Ministry's chief TB specialist.  "To eradicate TB, we need to be able to have high-quality lives" (Robin Munro, Moscow Times, March 25).

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