Tuberculosis deaths fall in Europe
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[March 20, 2017]
LONDON (Reuters) - The number of people developing and dying
from tuberculosis (TB) is falling in Europe, but among the most
vulnerable - including migrants, prisoners and people who are HIV
positive - there have been worrying increases, data showed on Monday.
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Figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC) and the Europe regional office of the World Health
Organization (WHO) showed new TB cases and deaths in the 53
countries of the WHO's European region fell each year by 4.3 and 8.5
percent respectively between 2011 and 2015.
But new co-infections with TB and HIV together increased by 40
percent from 2011 to 2015, showing that efforts to control the
disease need to be far more focused on high risk groups.
"The general downward trend in reported TB cases is encouraging,"
the ECDC's acting director, Andrea Ammon, said in a statement. "But
some groups are not benefiting from this trend and we need to target
our efforts better if we want to end the TB epidemic."
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She said providing testing to all TB patients for HIV, and vice
versa, followed by counseling and rapid treatment, could reverse the
negative co-infection trend.
Global figures released last year by the WHO showed that in 2015,
some 1.8 million people died from TB. Of them, 400,000 were
co-infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes
AIDS. [nL8N1CH5CQ]
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People with HIV are more vulnerable to TB because their immune
systems are weakened. Experts estimate the risk of developing TB is
between 26 and 31 times greater in HIV patients than in HIV negative
people.
Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO's European regional director, said the
flare-up of TB/HIV co-infections, coupled with persistently high
rates of drug-resistant TB, were a serious threat to international
efforts to control the disease.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Julia Glover)
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