March 26, 2000
SECTION: News; Pg. 3
HEADLINE: TB CUTS SWATHE THROUGH THIRD WORLD
BYLINE: Business Times Reporter
Around a third of the worlds population has been infected with tuberculosis (TB),
according to a report the World Health Organisation issued to coincide with World TB Day
on Friday.
The disease kills 2-million people a year, and 98% of sufferers are in developing
countries, reports The Economist magazine.
Sapa-AP quotes WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland saying 75% of sufferers are
aged 15 to 54 cutting a swathe through the developing worlds peoples at their most
economically productive age.
Eight-million people contract TB every year, and it kills six people a minute.
In South Africa, it is estimated that TB killed three people every day last year, and
12000 new infections took place.
In countries where tuberculosis flourishes, social and economic development are
compromised, and in those where national security, living conditions and education and
health provision are poor, tuberculosis abounds, says Dr Arata Kochi, who leads the WHOs
fight against the disease.
TB has increased in sub-Saharan Africa and Cambodia partly because of their high rates
of HIV infection, which predisposes patients to TB. Cheap cost-effective antibiotics taken
for up to eight months will cure the disease. But treatment with the wrong drugs, or
irregular supplies of the right ones, is leading to a rise in deadly multi-drug resistant
TB, The Economist says.
Business Times Reporter