Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - In his first address to the World Conference on AIDS in Bangkok former South African president Nelson Mandela said that to fight AIDS it is necessary to fight TB which kills more than 5,000 people each day, about 1.6 million each year.
Like most diseases requiring assistance and monitoring, TB strikes mainly developing countries and in fact ¾ of the world’s TB sufferers live in poor countries: 80% of the cases are in only 22 countries, 15 of which are among the poorest in the world and the seven remaining countries are medium income range, Indonesia, Philippines, South Africa, Russia, Brazil, Myanmar and Peru.
TB is the main cause (between 11% and 50%) of death for HIV+ persons. It is estimated that 14 million people in the world suffer from TB and that 7 of every 10 live in Africa. In Asia TB is the cause of 4.5 of the 9 million deaths of HIV+ persons in six different countries, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Philippines.
Experts say that if HIV+ persons people with TB are cured they live longer. If the disease continues not to be diagnosed it is estimated that in the next 20 years one billion people will be infected, 200 million people could develop the disease and another 35 million could die.
TB is an emergency which each year registers almost nine million new cases in different regions according to social and economic conditions and programmes of control and the impact with HIV virus..
Fides gives ample space to this problem with a Dossier including information, statistics and testimony of people involved in the fight against this terrible disease.
(AP) (16/7/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:31; Parole:371)
