World Tuberculosis Day

Today is World Tuberculosis Day. Between two and three million people every year -- five people every minute -- die from tuberculosis. This year’s World Tuberculosis Day slogan, “Every Breath Counts - Stop TB Now!”, communicates the importance of acting decisively to eliminate TB. The United States Government, through the U.S. Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Agency for International Development, is committed to fighting tuberculosis, often in conjunction with bilateral and multilateral partners such as Stop TB and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

Roughly 80 percent of all active tuberculosis cases are found in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In the hardest-hit countries, the potential cost of lost productivity due to active tuberculosis may amount to four to seven percent of GDP. HIV and tuberculosis often go hand-in-hand, each increasing a person’s susceptibility to the other. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, erodes the immune system and significantly increases the possibility that someone with a dormant tuberculosis infection will develop active tuberculosis disease. As the HIV/AIDS pandemic tightens its grip in a growing number of regions, the spread of tuberculosis will also increase.

In 2004, the U.S. government will spend roughly $200 million to develop new diagnostic and treatment regimens, to search for a TB vaccine, to monitor TB and multi-drug resistant TB around the world, and to support international TB initiatives that ensure individuals with TB are identified and successfully treated. The U.S. also remains the largest donor to the Global Fund and has pledged a total of $1.97 billion from the fund's inception through 2008. In addition, because TB is an opportunistic infection of HIV/AIDS, a substantial portion of the funds for HIV/AIDS treatment in the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief will help those TB sufferers who are also infected with HIV.

On World Tuberculosis Day, we should all remember that the effects of this disease are felt in every country, no matter its size or standard of living. We must all continue to work together to finally defeat this menace.

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