WHO calls for extra resources to step up fight against tuberculosis

doi:10.1136/bmj.39521.688067.DB

BMJ 2008;336:631 (22 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39521.688067.DB

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WHO calls for extra resources to step up fight against tuberculosis

John Zarocostas

¹ Geneva

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Governments need to scale up national programmes to fight andcontrol tuberculosis, which remains a major cause of illnessand death worldwide, says a new report from the World HealthOrganization.

In 2006 an estimated 9.2 million new cases and 1.7 million deathsfrom tuberculosis occurred worldwide, including 700 000 millioncases and 200 000 deaths in HIV positive people, says WHO’sreport. It estimates that the total number of cases in 2006was 14.4 million.

Some progress has been achieved, the report says. The incidenceper capita is falling worldwide, and the prevalence and deathrate are also falling, and the decline is now faster. The worldwideincidence fell by 0.6% to 139 cases per 100 000 population between2005 and 2006. Prevalence fell by 2.8% from 2005 to 2006, to219 per 100 000 population, it says.

But although the directly observed therapy short course (DOTS)programmes, the . . . [Full text of this article]