 |
| Image displaying cover page of the Global Tuberculosis Report 2012 [Photo Credit: UNifeed] |
Geneva/ Switzerland: An estimated 20 million people are alive today as a direct
result of tuberculosis (TB) care and control, according to the World Health
Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2012 released Wednesday (17
October).
Dr. Mario Raviglione, Director of the WHO Stop TB Department
said the report shows that fight against TB is at "a crossroads,"
with on one hand progress that "allows us even to foresee elimination in
some settings" and on the other hand a "huge financing gap that will
result if not filled in millions of unnecessary deaths."
New data in the report confirms that TB remains a major
infectious killer today. The findings show a continued decline in the number of
people falling ill from TB, but still an enormous global burden of 8.7 million
new cases in 2011.
The report also points to the promise of medical
breakthroughs from new TB drugs – the first in over 40 years – which could be
on the market as early as 2013. Tools to prevent, detect and treat all forms of
TB are steadily advancing through the R&D pipeline, says the report.
Raviglione said "for the first time in forty years we
are going to have drugs available in the next few months that might change the
way we deal with multidrug resistant TB."
Nevertheless, he pointed out that "the final battle
against tuberculosis has to be really won at the country level" and to
that end "we need to do all possible we can to fill the financial gaps
that we have in countries."
The report notes that there is a US$ 1.4 billion funding gap
per year for research and development. And it warns of a further US$ 3 billion
per year funding shortfall between 2013 and 2015 which could have severe
consequences for TB control.
According to the report, there were an estimated 1.4 million
deaths from TB, including half a million women, underlining the disease as one
of the world's top killers of women.