Copyright 2003 Business Wire,
Inc.
Business Wire
March 24, 2003, Monday
DISTRIBUTION: Health/Medical Writers
LENGTH: 1225 words
HEADLINE: World Health Organization Director-General Nominee Sees Reduction in TB
Transmission but HIV a Major Threat to TB Control;
World TB Day 24 March 2003
DATELINE: LONDON, March 24, 2003
BODY:
Dr Jong Wook Lee, Director-General nominee of the World Health Organization (WHO), said
today that for the first time since WHO declared TB a 'Global Emergency' in 1993 there are
real prospects for turning the tide against the epidemic -- but only if the international
community kept its focus, accelerated action particularly in the key endemic countries and
increased resources for the Global Plan to Stop TB.
Speaking in London at a press conference organized by the global Stop TB Partnership on World TB Day (24 March 2003) with UK Secretary of State for International
Development Clare Short, Dr Lee said the accumulating number of patients cured under DOTS,
the internationally recommended TB strategy, has clearly slowed the spread of infection
and signals a significant public health development. The international health community
was closing in on TB, with a clear programme strategy and effective structures to do the
job.
"By redoubling our efforts - and with strengthened funding for the Global Plan to
Stop TB - we could expect to see a reduction in the sickness and death caused by
tuberculosis world wide within the next few years, as we are already seeing in some
countries like Peru," he said. "But we stand at a crossroads in this struggle
and must not lose our direction and momentum. If we falter in our efforts at this crucial
juncture, the hard-won progress of the past decade could easily be halted and even
reversed."
The number of countries that have adopted the DOTS strategy has grown from fewer than 20
in 1993 to 155 and more than 60 percent of the world's population now have access to free
DOTS services, according to the WHO 2003 Global TB Control Report published today (24 March). Ten million patients have been cured by DOTS - more than 90
percent of them in developing countries. In recent years, DFID, the World Bank and other
major donors have significantly increased funding to support the Global Plan to Stop TB.
Secretary of State Clare Short said: "There is good news today - curing 10 million TB
patients is a massive achievement. But TB remains a significant problem for the world and
hits poor communities very hard. We must make better progress. We can only do that by
working in partnership with governments and other agencies to build sustainable systems
that can deliver treatment to all."
Dr Lee warned that while TB transmission had been reduced, the main drivers of the
epidemic - HIV infection, population growth, poverty and migration - would capitalise on
any let-up in efforts: "The TB epidemic is still growing unabated in Africa and the
countries of the former Soviet Union, where it is linked with HIV/AIDS, poverty and social
disruption. One third of the world's entire population is infected with TB bacilli, and
when HIV hits a pool of latent TB infection it is like putting a match to petrol. We have
seen this most clearly in sub-Saharan Africa, where TB rates have quadrupled in some
high-HIV countries since the mid-1980s. Our greatest fear is that as HIV becomes
entrenched, a new explosion of tuberculosis could be ignited."
As antiretrovirals are more widely used to extend the lives of people living with AIDS,
DOTS must become part of the treatment package for people with TB and AIDS, he said.
Treating their tuberculosis is the surest and most cost-effective way to increase life
expectancy.
Among the main national success stories cited by WHO:
-- In India, which alone accounts for nearly a quarter of the global burden, more than 1
million TB patients have been treated since DOTS expansion began in late 1998, and 50,000
new patients are now started on treatment every month. By early 2002, the DOTS program was
credited with already saving 200,000 lives and more than US $400 million in indirect
costs. In China, second on the list of high burden countries, 1.3 million people with
infectious TB have been treated under DOTS over the last decade and 90 percent of them
cured. As a result, active TB cases have fallen 35 percent in areas applying DOTS compared
to a small increase in areas not covered. The DOTS expansion programs in both India and
China have been supported with loans from the World Bank.
-- Two high burden countries, Vietnam and Peru, have already exceeded the global TB
control targets for 2005 of identifying 70 percent of infectious TB cases and curing 85
percent of those identified. As a result, Peru fell off the list of high burden countries
in 2000 and TB cases are now falling by 6 percent annually.
-- TB control programs in three other high burden countries -- the Philippines, Myanmar
and Cambodia -- are making strong headway and within reach of the 2005 targets.
The steady expansion of DOTS at country level since 1993 has been accompanied by the
creation of new international structures that have greatly improved co-ordination of TB
strategy, operations, research and funding at the global level.
-- The global Stop TB Partnership, launched by WHO in 1998, has grown to more than 250
members, including donor institutions like the World Bank, foundations, NGOs,
universities, and organizations represented by George Soros and Bill Gates.
-- The Global Drug Facility, an innovative mechanism operated by the Partnership to ensure
access to TB drugs for low-income countries, has already made grants for 1.8 million TB
patient treatments since its launch on World TB Day in 2001. It has also
reduced the cost of TB drugs by 30% to less than $10 for a full treatment.
-- The Green Light Committee, which assists country programs to treat multidrug-resistant
TB (MDR-TB), has reduced the cost of second-line TB drugs by more than 95 percent through
negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry.
-- The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) has devoted nearly US
$250 million in funding during its first two years to TB control programs in 16 of the 22
high burden countries.
-- Most important, Stop TB partners have a shared strategic vision - the Global Plan to
Stop TB. A unique document developed by 150 experts around the world, it sets clear
targets with required inputs and measurable outcomes to cut the global TB burden in half
by 2010 relative to 2000 levels.
Notes to editors
1. Images of TB patients can be downloaded from the Stop TB Image Library at http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/library.html
2. The Stop TB Partnership was established by WHO in 1998 as a broad-based social movement
to combat TB. In 2001 the Partnership launched the Global Plan to Stop TB, which aims to
identify 70 percent of all people with infectious TB globally and ensure that 85 percent
of those detected are successfully treated by the end of 2005. Over 250 organisations are
now signed up to the Partnership.
CONTACT: Becky Owens
020 7733 9473/07779 260454 (mobile)
or
Sangeeta Haindl
020 8761 5531/ 07786 542776 (mobile)
or
Paul Sommerfeld
TB Alert
London
020 8969 4830/07979 860266 (mobile)
or
Georgina Kenyon
WHO/Geneva
+4122 791 3983/+41 79 509 0677 (mobile)
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