SARS fight could help anti-TB drive

Money and public attention spent on eradicating SARS also might yield benefits in the fight against a more lethal enemy, tuberculosis, which remains one of Asia’s top killers with 1,000 deaths every day, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

"SARS could indirectly help us fight TB, since greater resources for the surveillance and control of infectious diseases mean we can find and cure more of the two million TB sufferers in our region," WHO Western Pacific director Shigeru Omi said in a statement ahead of World TB Day tomorrow.

Last year’s SARS outbreak killed 774 people and sickened more than 8,000 worldwide. Tuberculosis kills 1,000 people and infects about 5,500 others in the Western Pacific region every day, Omi said.

He said while the cure rate for tuberculosis exceeds 85 percent, only 40 percent of patients are being detected.

The SARS outbreak has resulted in renewed attention to public health issues and control of infectious diseases, leading to a substantial increase in resources to fight the disease and other health threats, such as tuberculosis, Omi said.

China, which accounts for more than half of the region’s tuberculosis cases, in particular faces a major test in fighting TB.

WHO said China detects only one in three people infected with TB, and one in four Chinese has no access to basic TB treatment.

Omi said other countries in the region with a high rate of tuberculosis are Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Cambodia, Mongolia, the Philippines and Vietnam have made treatment widely available, but many people with symptoms still do not seek a cure for fear of stigma or the cost, WHO said.

WHO hopes to reduce TB cases worldwide by half by 2010. — AP, Sheila Crisostomo