Akhir 18, 1432 H/March 23, 2011, SPA -- The World Health Organisation on Wednesday said more funds were needed globally to fight tuberculosis (TB) or progress made so far could see a setback, dpa reported. Of serious concern was a type of TB that is resistant to drugs and very difficult to treat, called MDR-TB. The WHO estimates there will be more than 2 million new cases of MDR-TB between 2011 and 2015. There were some 440,000 cases of this resistant form of the virus - which generally attacks the lungs - and 150,000 deaths in 2008, the last year for which statistics were published. "Unless we make an extraordinary effort to tackle this problem our ability to finance and secure continued progress against TB in general will be threatened," said Michel Kazatchkine, chief of the Global Fund. The fund was established to fight TB, AIDS and malaria and since its founding in 2002 has spent 21.7 billion dollars on health, with an increase in expenditure expected in the coming years. The joint warning with the WHO came ahead of World TB Day, to be marked Thursday. In 2009, some 9.4 million people became ill with TB and 1.7 million died, according to the WHO. Countries bearing the brunt of the MDR-TB strain are mainly in Eastern Europe and Asia, but also several Africa nations were struggling to fight the virus. The WHO and Global Fund stressed the need to treat the disease effectively in order to contain the spread of the drug-resistant strain.
