Africa: rise of tuberculosis

&to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/360/12321_disease.html ' target=_blank>Tuberculosis is at an all-time low in the USA and is declining in most parts of the world, but health officials, speaking out today to mark World TB Day, warn that the disease is very much on the rise in Africa. The World Health Organization, in its Global Tuberculosis Control report for 2005, released today, says TB rates are falling or stable in five of the six regions of the world. But in African countries where HIV is raging, TB rates have tripled since 1990 and are still rising at a rate of 3% to 4% each year. "Evidence in this report provides real optimism that TB is beatable, but it is also a clear warning," WHO Director-General LEE Jong-wook said in a statement, tells the USA Today. The number of cases of tuberculosis is rising 3 to 4 percent annually across the &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2002/06/25/31111.html ' target=_blank>African continent, though the respiratory disease is being stemmed elsewhere, according to the report of a United Nations agency. The &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2003/01/16/42087.html ' target=_blank>World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report, "Global Tuberculosis Control", on World TB Day that there were an estimated 8.8 million new cases worldwide in 2003 -- 2.3 million of them in Africa. "The rate of TB infections has tripled in some African countries since 1990 ... In Africa we have to face the fact that we have much further to go," WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook told a news conference on Thursday in London, informs Xinhuanet. Globally, TB prevalence has dropped by more than 20 percent since 1990, and is "falling or stable" in five of the world's six regions, according to the WHO. "But for the strongly adverse trends in Africa, prevalence and death rates would be falling more quickly worldwide," it said. NR

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