- ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
-- The spread of HIV/AIDS is fueling a massive tuberculosis crisis that
could see one billion people infected in the next 20 years, the U.N. warned
Monday.
-
- A staggering 35 million people could also die of TB in
that time if its growth continues unchecked, the World Health Organization
said at the start of a two-day conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa.
-
- The conference is seeking to promote joint treatment
of the two leading killer diseases in the world. AIDS kills 8,000 people
worldwide a day while another 5,000 die from TB.
-
- TB is the most common infection among - and the leading
killer of - people living with HIV/AIDS.
-
- TB infects an estimated 8.7 million people a year and
kills 2 million a year. It is spread by airborne bacteria that settle into
the lungs and cause long-term infection. Many people who are infected do
not become ill themselves but can spread it.
-
- Of the estimated 25 million Africans now living with
HIV, about eight million also harbor the bacillus that causes TB.
-
- Each year, 5-10 percent of these eight million co-infected
people develop active TB and up to four million will develop the disease
at some point in their lives, the WHO said.
-
- The "deadly interaction" of TB and HIV threatens
to evolve into a global public health crisis and called for urgent action
to stop the co-epidemic, said Mario Raviglione, head of the WHO fight against
TB. The danger is compounded by the appearance of drug-resistant TB strains.
-
- Earlier Monday, a senior US health official called on
Ethiopia's political leaders to go for public tests for HIV in a bid to
help end the stigma affecting those living with the virus.
-
- Julie Gerberding, director of the US Center for Disease
Control, was speaking during a three-day visit highlighting projects funded
under U.S. President George W. Bush's US$15 billion initiative to combat
HIV/AIDS.
-
- "Having a visible political leader getting an HIV
test helps, there is no question about it," Gerberding said. "I
would encourage all leaders to have an HIV test as I have done."
-
- Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority
of The Associated Press.
-
- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&ncid=54
1&e=1&u=/ap/20040920/ap_on_he_me/africa_tb_crisis
|