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700 People Die from TB in China Every Day
Every day 700 people die from tuberculosis (TB) in China, making the country second only to India in such deaths, according to an official report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) Monday.
Tuberculosis tops the list of infectious causes of death in China, says the report. "This country not only has the world's largest population, it also has one of the world's highest TB burdens."
Over 400 million persons are infected and six million persons are carriers of the disease in China. Each year, another 1.4 million people develop active TB.
An estimated 30 million Chinese will develop this dreaded disease within 10 years, if no immediate concerted action is taken, says the report.
Dr. Chen Xianyi, deputy director general of the Disease Control Department of the Chinese Ministry of Health, said that some 40 million yuan (about US$4.8 million) has been allocated from the national budget to control the disease.
The money will be spent mostly in the western regions and other poor areas around the country. Meanwhile, China will make efforts to acquire international support in finance and equipment, said Dr. Chen.
The world's most populous country has an ambitious plan to cure one million patients suffering from TB by 2005, and by 2010 to cure 4 million by popularizing the WHO's recommended strategy of directly observed therapy, short-course (DOTS).
The deputy director, along with some 60 government officials, international TB experts and delegates from international assistance organizations, is here to attend the Second Technical Advisory Group (TAG) held by the WHO's regional office for the Western Pacific.
They will discuss the progress and plans for the seven countries in this region suffering from the world's highest TB burdens in the next two days.
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