TB CONTROL SUCCESS: World health report
20 million lives saved through TB investments in last two decades, says WHO, launching call for more progress
An estimated 20 million people are alive today due to mass TB (tuberculosis) programmes, reveals a WHO global TB report...
The health organisation is celebrating the role of leadership in endemic countries and international donor support, but appeals for increased efforts to break the disease...
"In the space of 17 years 51 million people have been successfully treated and cared for according to WHO recommendations...
"Without that treatment, 20 million people would have died..." said Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the WHO Stop TB Department, following the release of the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2012.
"The momentum to break this disease is in real danger. We are now at a crossroads between TB elimination within our lifetime, and millions more TB deaths..." says Dr Raviglione.
Despite progress on TB elimination the health org's report has identified a current funding gap of USD 1.4 billion for research, and a further USD 3 billion per year funding gap between 2013 and 2015, which if unmet could have severe consequences for TB control.
This gap threatens to hinder delivery of TB care to patients and weaken programmes that prevent and control TB spread, with those in low-income countries in most danger, says WHO.
While a continued decline in the number of people falling sick from TB has been reported the disease remains a major infectious killer with 8.7 million new cases identified in 2011.
WHO is calling for increased targeted international donor funding, and continued investments by countries where TB is endemic - to defend progress in recent years, and ensure continued development towards TB eradication.
90 per cent of financing for TB control is provided by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the global fundraising organisation.
To date, the non-profit organisation has dedicated USD 22.9 billion in 151 countries to support wide-scale prevention, treatment and care initiatives supporting disease eradication.