Fighting scourge of TB
(Zhang Feng)
06/05/2001
In an effort to curb tuberculosis (TB), which infects millions of people in China every year, the central government is to work with various international organizations in combating the disease.The Chinese Government has allocated a special fund of 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million) this year to prevent and control TB, especially in western regions and other poverty-stricken areas, said Chen Xianyi, deputy director of the diseases control department at the Ministry of Health. The ministry will soon launch a TB control project using loans from the World Bank and cash donated by the UK's Department for International Development. The project is expected to cover 600 million people in 16 provinces. At the same time, with the help of the World Health Organization (WHO), another TB control project supported by the Japanese Government will start in 2002, which will provide anti-TB medicine and medical equipment to 11 poor Chinese provinces, said Chen. The latest programmes were revealed at a WHO regional group meeting, aimed at stopping the spread of TB, which opened yesterday in Beijing. More than 60 top government health officials, national TB-programme managers, international TB experts and representatives from international aid agencies are attending the 3-day meeting to combat the disease which kills about 1,000 people every day in East Asia, including China and Viet Nam. Success in achieving the "Stop TB" goal will depend largely on financial resources. WHO has called on all countries to ensure adequate funds are available to halt the spread of TB, said Shigeru Omi, WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific Region. In the early 1950s, TB was one of China's top killers, but has been reduced thanks to control efforts made by the government. However, since the beginning of the 1990s, TB has made a comeback in China as it has in many developed countries. Since 1992, China began a campaign to halt the spread of TB but, because of a shortage of money and medical resources, currently half of the country's population is not covered, Chen said. Many people still lack knowledge about TB and medical services, and they could infect more people. Experts estimated that if China does not take immediate concerted action, about 30 million people will be infected by TB in the coming 10 years. The State Council has worked out long and medium-term programmes to control TB over the next 10 years, Chen said.
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