The World Health Organization recently issued a press release stating that the detection and treatment of tuberculosis in Africa has show improvement in recent years but still falls far short of global targets for controlling the disease.
Dr. Eugene Nyarko, WHO Adviser for TB in the African Region, said that over the last decade the detection rate of TB has increased in Africa from 32 percent to 52 percent and that successful treatment of the disease had increased from 59 percent to 70 percent.
The level of reporting of tuberculosis in Africa had almost doubled from 83 cases per 100,000 population a decade ago to 164 cases per 100,000 population in 2001.
But despite that success, Nyarko said, Africa is still short of world targets,
These are all encouraging statistics, although some of the figures still fall short of the global targets. For example, the overall treatment success rate for infectious forms of lung of 70 percent fall short of the global target of 85 percent, while the current case detection rate of 52 percent falls short of the global target of 70 percent.
According to WHO’s latest estimates, almost two million Africans contract TB every year, and 600,000 people die as a result of the disease.
Source:
Indicators for TB Control in Africa Improve, But Still Fall Short of Global Targets. World Health Organization, Press Release, April 7, 2003.