World TB Day 2002 - In the News

Africa News
Headline: Gambia: TB Kills 2 Million People Annually, WHO Fact Sheet Reveals
Date: March 26, 2002
Byline: The Independent

The World Health Organisation or WHO has revealed that tuberculosis better known as TB kills two million people annually.

The WHO described it as a growing epidemic, which is poised to become more dangerous in the years ahead. In a fact sheet released on World TB Day with the theme for 2002 as "Stop TB, fight poverty", the WHO said the breakdown in health services, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB are contributing to the worsening impact of the disease. According to the fact sheet, the theme suggests that tackling TB, one of several illnesses that affect the poor, is one way of achieving greater global prosperity and security.

The fact sheet stated that in 1993, the WHO took an unprecedented step and declared tuberculosis a global emergency. It said that so great was the concern about the modern TB epidemic that it was estimated that between 2000 and 2020, nearly one billion people will be newly infected, 200 million people will get sick, and 35 million will die from TB if control is not further strengthened.

Like the common cold, TB is a contagious disease, spread through the air. When infectious people cough, sneeze, talk or spit, they propel TB germs known as bacilli into the air, which a person needs to inhale to be infected. Infected person with active TB left untreated will infect an average of between 10 and 15 people every year.

The fact sheet further stated that the substantial non-treatment cost of this disease is often greater and considerably more far-reaching than the direct cost of treatment. There is no doubt that a sick workforce contributes to an unhealthy economy and consequently, poor labourers and farmers stay poor if they are sick the sheet stated.

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