Healthcare
Every day tuberculosis kills 1,500 people in South-East Asia
By WHO, SE Asia
Mar 24, 2005, 17:47

This year is a landmark for tuberculosis (TB) control. Five years ago, the World Health Assembly resolved to achieve the global targets of 70% case detection and 85% treatment success among all new infectious cases of TB globally by end-2005. WHO�s South-East Asia Region (SEAR) has already reached the 85% target for treatment success; the overall case-detection rate is steadily increasing towards the 70% mark.

Still, the Region has the largest number of people with active TB. Eight million of the 20 million TB cases estimated globally are in the Region. Three million are newly affected every year, with 75% in the productive age group of 15-54 years.

�Every day tuberculosis kills 1,500 people in South-East Asia. The scale of death and disability caused by the disease makes it a leading public health issue in our Region�, says Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia. �World TB Day is a reason not only to draw attention to this often neglected disease, but also to support, encourage and give recognition to those who are helping to cure patients suffering from TB�.

This year�s World TB Day theme highlights the crucial role of frontline TB care providers. These are the real heroes and heroines in the battle against TB, who help in providing access to DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short course) for patients everywhere, demonstrating that TB can be cured and that DOTS works. World TB Day is an opportunity to make their voices heard, to disseminate their experience and educate people about services freely available to cure TB.

The eleven Member States of WHO�s South-East Asia Region are accelerating their efforts to reduce the TB burden to meet the World Health Assembly targets set for 2005 and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015. All 11 countries of the Region are implementing the internationally recommended DOTS strategy for TB control. Due to rapid expansion of the application of DOTS, nearly 90% of the population in the Region has access to care under this highly effective strategy and 85% of the 1.3 million TB cases who receive treatment under DOTS are successfully treated, thereby averting over 250,000 deaths annually.

The five largest countries in the Region - Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand- together place over 100 000 additional patients on treatment under DOTS every month. This is largely due to the progress being made in India, which also accounts for 25% of the world�s burden. The country�s Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) in internationally recognized as the fastest expanding DOTS programme ever. So far, RNTCP has initiated more than 4 million patients on treatment.

In order to build on this progress and to achieve the MDGs, national health systems will need to sustain resources, both human and financial, build partnerships with other sectors to extend DOTS to reach all TB patients and empower communities to demand and fully utilize available services.

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