Lead author Christopher Dye, D.Phil., from the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing on tuberculosis at the National Press Club.
In 1991, it was estimated that eight million people developed tuberculosis (TB) each year and that several million people die from the disease, according to background information in the article. In response to this, the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO) set 2 targets for TB control: to detect 70 percent of new cases and to successfully treat 85 percent of these cases.
Dye and colleagues conducted a study to determine if these goals will be met in 2005, as well as the goal of halving TB prevalence and deaths globally between 1990 and 2015. The researchers used data from DOTS (initially an acronym referring to directly observed treatment and now the term used for the WHO-recommended approach to TB control that includes five essential elements) and non-DOTS programs reported annually to the WHO by up to 200 countries, which includes the information needed to assess TB incidence, prevalence and deaths statistics. The elements of DOTS include political commitment; TB detection by sputum smear; standardized drug treatment (including directly observed therapy); a system to ensure regular drug supplies; and a standard reporting system, including treatment outcomes evaluation. Countries were grouped into nine different regions: African countries with a high HIV infection rate (four percent or greater in adults), African countries with a low HIV infection rate (less than four percent), Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, indu
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Contact: Christopher Dye, D.Phil.
dyec@who.int
JAMA and Archives Journals
7-Jun-2005