BKK Post, Mar: 20. HEALTH / TUBERCU

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HEALTH / TUBERCULOSIS
TB epidemic now out of control in 22 countries
WHO says 70 million likely to die by 2020 

London, AP

A tuberculosis epidemic is out of control in many countries and unless urgent action is taken nearly one billion more people will become infected and 70 million will die by the year 2020, the Would Health Organisation says.

At a three-day meeting in London which ended yesterday, public health and tuberculosis expert have been assessing whether 22 countries which account for 80 percent of the would's TB cases are making progress toward controlling the disease.

  "The TB epidemic is now increasing in many countries, with devastating consequences," WHO said. "This year, more people will die of TB than in any other year in history."
  Tuberculosis, which attacks mainly the lungs, intestines, skin and brain, is a bigger killer than malaria and Aids combined, and kills more women than all the conbined causes of maternal mortality. Ever year, between two and three million people die from TB, including 100,000 children, the group said.
   In 1993, WHO took and unprecedented  step and declared tuberculosis a global emergency.

   Experts on the Ad Hco Commission on the Global Tuberculosis Epidemic meeting in London have been examining new data to see if the 22 worst-affected countries are making progress toward meeting WHO's global targets of detecting 70 percent of infectious. TB cases and curing 85 percent of those by the year 2000.

   The 22 countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, and Vietnam.
  
    According to WHO, there are nearly three million new TB cases in Southeast Asia every year and nearly two million in sub- Saharan Africa. 

      Over a quarter of a million new cases occur annually in Eastern-Europe.

      ''It is estimated that between now and 2020, nearly one billion more people will be newly infected, 200 million people will get sick, and 70 million will die from TB-- if control is not strengthened," it said.