India has highest TB burden in the world: WHO report

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India has highest TB burden in the world: WHO report

Geneva, Nov 11 (PTI) India carries the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB) in

the world with 2 million new cases in 2009, though government and NGOs have

" remarkably scaled up their intervention " , the World Health Organization said

today.

Out of 1.3 million people who died from TB in the world last year, India

accounted for 2,80,000 lives. The mortality rate is higher in patients with

HIV/AIDS-related TB.

In its latest comprehensive report, Global Tuberculosis Control 2010, WHO said

although there were significant improvements in tackling this deadly but curable

disease, new forms of multi-drug-resistant TB are causing havoc in countries

like " Russia, China, and India. "

" India has the highest TB burden in the world and despite spectacular

interventions there were 2 million new cases in India, " Director, Stop TB

Department in WHO, Dr Raviglione said.

" The government and the private sector have remarkably scaled up their

intervention to tackle TB and there have been significant advances in India, " he

says.

India, he says, is an example of laboratory scale-up for diagnosis of MDR-TB,

suggesting that a total of 43 labs are being strengthened for diagnosis of this

deadly disease.

However, there are big challenges for Indian health policy officials in

addressing the MDR-TB, he said, adding the spread of the disease was localized

to people living in poor and unhealthy environments.

The private sector in India is probably the biggest private source of TB

medicines in the world, though management of TB patients in the private sector

is known to be of uneven quality, according to the report.

Global funding for TB control reached almost USD 5 billion last year but it is

still short of the requirement to implement the Stop TB program.

http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4565582