[afro-nets] Key messages for World TB Day

["Claudio Schuftan" <cschuftan@phmovement.org>]

Cross posted from: [health-vn discussion group] <health-vn@cairo.anu.edu.au>

World TB Day is on March 24th and the key slogan for the day is "I Am Stopping TB".

Addressing TB is one of the key challenges of HIV response. About a third of the 40 million PLWHA worldwide at the end of 2001 are co- infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The majority of these co infected people are in resource constrained countries. TB accounts for up to a third of AIDS deaths worldwide.

Escalating tuberculosis case rates over the past decade in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in parts of SE Asia (e.g. northern Thailand) are largely attributable to the HIV epidemic. Since the mid-1980s, in many African countries, including those with well-organised programmes, annual tuberculosis case notification rates have risen up to fourfold. Up to 70% of patients with sputum smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis are HIV-positive in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since up to half of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) develop tuberculosis, and tuberculosis has an adverse effect on HIV progression, tuberculosis care and prevention should be priority concerns of HIV/AIDS programmes, and HIV/AIDS prevention and care should be priority concerns of TB programmes.

I Am Stopping TB is more than slogan. It is the start of a two-year campaign that belongs to people everywhere who are doing their part to Stop TB.

This year's World TB Day is about celebrating the lives and stories of people affected by TB: women, men and children who have taken TB treatment; nurses; doctors; researchers; community workers?anyone who has contributed towards the global fight against TB.

You may log on to the following web page for further details.
http://www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2008/

On this site you can download materials that will help you make your own World TB materials like posters, web postings and video; and plan World TB Day activities

The following are the key messages for the World TB Day. March 24th, 2008

We are making progress on TB. In 2005 the rate of new cases of TB worldwide leveled off for the first time since the World Health Organization began collecting data about the disease. And the rate at which TB is detected has doubled since 2000.

Everyone can do something to stop TB, and every individual's action counts. In 2008 we will celebrate the actions of people all over the world joining forces to stop TB.

Despite recent progress, TB remains a massive global public health problem, with nearly 9 million new cases and more than a million-and-a-half deaths each year. Greater commitment by governments to fighting TB in their countries is needed now. So is greater commitment by donors to finance TB care and research into new drugs, new diagnostics and new vaccines.

There is now evidence that that countries most heavily affected by TB can reap on average a 10-fold return on investments in TB diagnosis and treatment, on condition that they implement the Stop TB Partnership's Global Plan to Stop TB. The Plan sets out a roadmap for confronting the disease over the next eight years. Human suffering was reason enough to fight TB -- now we know that addressing the disease can help stop poverty too.

We will never eliminate TB without new and more effective drugs, diagnostics and vaccines. Today's most commonly used TB diagnostic, sputum microscopy, is more than 100 years old and lacks sensitivity. Today's TB drugs are more than 40 years old and must be taken for six to nine months. Today's TB vaccine, which is more than 85 years old, provides some protection against severe forms of TB in children but is unreliable against pulmonary TB. Simpler, faster drug regimens that treat all forms of TB; rapid, more accurate diagnostic tools to quickly detect TB; and a vaccine that will be effective in preventing TB in people of all ages are urgently needed.

http://www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2008/
http://www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2008/

--
Vern Weitzel 
mailto:vern.weitzel@gmail.com