Text: Health Secretary Thompson Renews Commitment to Fight Tuberculosis

22 March 2002

Text: Health Secretary Thompson Renews Commitment to Fight Tuberculosis

Thompson Recognizes World TB Day March 24

In a statement recognizing World TB Day, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced March 22 that he would be traveling to South Africa and Botswana in coming days to assess U.S. programs working to control tuberculosis, a disease of the lungs which kills two million people a year.

Health organizations around the globe will focus special attention on World TB Day March 24.

"TB is an airborne disease that knows no borders and can spread as people travel to different parts of the globe," Thompson said. "Without strengthened TB control efforts, an estimated 200 million people will get sick from TB and 35 million people will die by the year 2020."

Thompson said the foremost U.S. contribution to the effort to control TB is its $500 million pledge to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

More information about tuberculosis and the effort to contain it is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/tb/worldtb2002/default.htm.

Following is the text of the Thompson statement:

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
HHS Press Office

STATEMENT BY HHS SECRETARY TOMMY G. THOMPSON
Regarding World TB Day
March 24, 2002

On World TB Day, we are renewing our commitment to help control tuberculosis globally and to eliminate the disease from the United States.

Worldwide, 2 million people die from TB each year. And more than one-third of the world's population is currently infected with the bacteria that cause TB. Next week, I will be traveling to South Africa and Botswana, two heavily TB-afflicted countries, to get a firsthand look at the situation on the ground and visit our U.S. government programs devoted to stemming the tide of this deadly disease.

At home, we've made real progress. For the ninth year in a row, the number of people suffering with TB has decreased. In 2001, early data show 15,991 people were reported with TB -- an all-time low in this country. But there's growing evidence that the disease's global spread is affecting our efforts in the U.S, as for the first time, half of all TB cases in the United States occurred among people born outside our country.

We are taking steps in the United States and abroad to improve tuberculosis programs and diminish the impact of the disease worldwide.

Foremost is HHS' $100 million contribution in fiscal year 2002 to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The President and I have also asked Congress for another $100 million for the fund in the administration's fiscal year 2003 budget request, part of a total U.S. pledge thus far of $500 million for this ground-breaking effort.

HHS officials are also evaluating TB screening methods utilized by health care providers working for U.S. Embassies and are updating guidelines for screening those individuals who are moving to the United States. We are taking steps within the United States to create an electronic system to alert local health departments of recent arrivals who may be infected with TB more efficiently.

I met recently with the Mexican Minister of Health to discuss initiatives that would ensure that TB patients are fully treated as they move across the U.S.-Mexico border. We have proposed a binational tuberculosis card that would allow patients to keep track of and complete therapy no matter where they seek treatment.

And we are strengthening our collaboration with the World Health Organization, which has identified 23 highly affected countries that account for 80 percent of global tuberculosis cases, and other international partners like the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development.

TB is an airborne disease that knows no borders and can spread as people travel to different parts of the globe. Without strengthened TB control efforts, an estimated 200 million people will get sick from TB and 35 million people will die by the year 2020.

To learn more about TB and World TB Day activities, please visit CDC's Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/tb/worldtb2002/default.htm.

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