'Tangible Progress' Reported in Control of TB in SE Asia

VOA News 24/03/2010

The World Health Organization has taken the occasion of World TB Day to document the progress and challenges in its fight against tuberculosis in its Southeast Asia region.

Picture: Tuberculosis patient Supachai Sengsum on his bed at Wat Prabat Nampu in Lopburi, Thailand (2009 File)

The United Nations health body warns it faces several challenges in its TB programs in the region. The World Health Organization says it main tasks are to sustain and expand services to countries struggling with poverty, rapid urbanization and large population displacements.

India accounts for 20 percent of all global tuberculosis cases. And while the overall death rate has been on the decline in the 11 countries in the WHO's Southeast Asia region, it is responsible for half a million deaths each year.

The region is composed of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Burma, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and East Timor.

WHO officials are particularly concerned by data showing more than a third of patients getting repeat treatments in Thailand have multi-drug resistant TB. India has the highest such number of cases globally. Multi-drug resistant TB is much harder to treat successfully.

WHO: H1N1 Influenza Pandemic to Last Another Year

VOA News 29/12/2009

The director-general of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, predicts the H1N1 swine flu virus is likely to continue circulating around the world for another year. She warns nations must remain vigilant because the H1N1 virus could mutate into a more dangerous form.

Chan says impressive progress has been made in areas such as treatment for HIV/AIDS, in the large number of lives saved among children under five and in significant cuts in deaths from malaria and measles.

But, she warns this progress is fragile. She says the momentum for health development could come to a grinding halt because of problems stemming from the food and financial crises, the changing climate and the H1N1 influenza pandemic.

"Just imagine, a severe pandemic coming at such a fragile time in a world where there are many people suffering from chronic diseases like heart disease, lung disease, including asthma, cancers, with many more people suffering from HIV, obesity and the list goes on," she said.

The World Health Organization reports H1N1 has spread to more than 200 countries, with nearly 12,000 laboratory confirmed deaths. Chan says it is likely this death toll is greatly underestimated. She says it probably will take about two years after the pandemic has ended for the true figure to be established.