The 12th annual report on global
tuberculosis control released on the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day by the World Health Organization has revealed that the progress in detecting new
cases of tuberculosis is slowing down threatening to increase the risks of transmitting drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis worldwide.
In year 2006 alone, 9.2
million new cases and 1.7 million
deaths were reported. Of these 700,000 cases and 200,000 deaths were of those afflicted by H.I.V. This data is based on the figures obtained from 202
countries and territories. The African, Southeast Asian and Western Pacific regions accounted for 83 percent of total cases, with India, China, Indonesia, South Africa and Nigeria being the top five countries reporting the absolute numbers of tuberculosis cases. The African region has the highest incidence rate per capita.
The slow
detection of cases is worrying WHO experts who attribute it to the inability of national programs to continue in the detection work at the same pace. Many cases are also not detected among people whose deaths are attributed to other diseases, like AIDS. WHO is facing acute shortage of money needed for tuberculosis control program in poor countries. (New York Times, March 18, 2008) DNBhatnagar
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