5.000 People Die of Tuberculosis Every Day

Poverty and AIDS Exacerbate the situation

With almost two million victims per year, Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most alarming infectious diseases in the world.

This huge scale mortality can be brought to a halt: the disease, formerly known as “Consumption”, can be cured using antibiotics within months. Treatment is relatively cheap by European standards, costing an average of 50 euros. The medicine is provided free of charge by the Global Drug Facility of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Nonetheless, one fifth of infected people die, the reason being that in several “Third World” areas there are not enough health services to provide controlled and standardised treatment. Crucially in the world’s poorest countries, millions of people fall victim to TB.

The disease is most prevalent among people who have a compromised immune system often resulting from malnutrition, poor living conditions and last, but not least, AIDS. For this reason TB is particularly prevalent in the „Third World“ slum areas. As poverty and AIDS spread further and further, the number of TB patients worldwide is increasing yearly by 1-2 %. In Africa, 20 % of the TB patients are children, in slum areas even 40 % are estimated.

Early diagnosis is critical in the fight against Tuberculosis. Photo: DAHW

Signs and symptoms:

Lungs are the most common organ in the body affected by the TB bacillus. The most common signs and symptoms are:

•   A persistent cough (longer than three weeks)

•   Coughing blood

•   Pain in the chest for more than three weeks

•   Fever lasting longer than three weeks.

Lethal shortness of breath

Diagnosis of TB is confirmed by examining the suspected person’s sputum. When bacilli are found in the sputum the person is positive for TB. Transmission is airborne and is spread by an infectious person coughing. Although lungs are the most common organ affected by TB, any organ in the body can be affected.

The newborn can be vaccinated against TB immediately after birth. However, the effectiveness is restricted to just a few forms of the disease. Vaccination does not protect against infection.

A two-fold epidemic in Africa

Worldwide every ninth person suffering from AIDS dies of TB. Their immune systems are too weakened by HIV to suppress the bacteria. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a double epidemic has emerged and most people there who have TB also have AIDS.

In several countries, most people with TB are also infected with HIV. WHO has declared a state of emergency for TB in Africa. If treated correctly, survival chances can be improved considerably and also people with AIDS can be cured of TB.

Millennium target: Reducing the spread of TB 

The member states of the United Nations have set themselves an ambitious target: by the year 2015 they wish to reduce worldwide poverty to half of its current situation. This is the core of the so-called millennium targets they have agreed on for moving into the next millennium.

The tasks also include fighting against AIDS, Tuberculosis and other diseases affecting the poor, diseases which millions of people die of each year.

UN General Secretary Kofi Annan: „We need wide scale mobilisation for the fight against TB“. „5,000 people die each day of TB, although the disease can be avoided and healed.“

If treated with antibiotics, Tuberculosis can be cured. Photo: DAHW

How DAHW helps in the „Third World“

DAHW has been supporting treatment of those infected with TB in the „Third World“ since 1990. 8 % of all patients registered worldwide are cured with our help: more than 300,000 people.

We ensure that basic medical care is available under difficult conditions, even in poor African countries that are ridden with poverty and often in the midst of a civil war.

As well as treatment, DAHW also supports the training of specialist staff in clinics and health centres, providing consultancy services and quality control support. Moreover, we finance laboratory equipment, cars and motorbikes for our partners, ensuring that aid can also be provided in remote areas.

As TB is rife in slums, DAHW will extend work there during the coming years: among other things we will increase treatment opportunities, provide social support to improve living conditions and intensify health education to ensure that people come for treatment in good time.

AIDS and TB: Tackled together

Due to the huge scale of people infected with both AIDS and TB, DAHW is engaging in a joint fight against both diseases in six projects in both Africa and India. The patients are offered HIV tests and life-saving medicine is administered. They are also informed about the various means of infection so that they can protect others.

DAHW supports the local relief organisation „Pasada“ in the Tanzanian metropolis of Dar es Salaam. This includes a home care programme for AIDS patients who are too ill to make the journey to the centre. „Pasada“ also offers programmes to prevent mother-to-child infection and for taking care of AIDS orphans.

New TB-Patiens worldwide in 2004*

Total:                                            4,12 million            registered

(Source: WHO)                                             

                                                    8,8 million             

(totally or partly finances)

Relative share:                                8,6 %                  registered

Deaths:                                         1,75 million            estimated

(Source: WHO)

* The World Health Organisation (WHO) has no figures yet for the year 2005.