TUBERCULOSIS IS hardly known among the general population today. Annually, only about 114 Jamaicans contract the disease, and 80 per cent are cured. In one of our closest neighbours, Haiti, there are almost 9,000 cases per year. Haiti has just received international aid of US$8 million for fighting TB along with AIDS and malaria. Guyana has recorded an average of 347 cases of TB each year since 1994 in a population about half that of Jamaica.
In the past, a strong public health and treatment programme brought what was once a fairly common disease under control. The creation of the George V Sanatorium, now the National Chest Hospital, by the colonial authorities was part of that successful drive. TB co-ordinator in the Ministry of Health, Sydney Irving, says good hygiene, monitoring and detection and a high level of immunisation has kept infection rates at a low constant level over the past 15 years.
But worldwide the disease has been resurging in association with HIV/AIDS. The destruction of the immune system leaves the body open to infections like tuberculosis. Some eight million new cases are emerging each year and there are some two million deaths. According to PAHO, TB continues to be a serious health problem in our region of Latin America and the Caribbean, which is contributing 250,000 annual cases and 20,000 deaths to the global figures.
Another worrying trend is the emergence of resistant strains of the TB bacterium to available antibiotics. Cocktails of multiple antibiotics are now being used to treat TB patients. As rates of infection increase and therefore the need for treatment, resistance can be expected to also rise. We are therefore locked in a deadly loop with one of the old infectious scourges of mankind.
There is legitimate concern that international travel and the link between TB and HIV/AIDS could trigger a resurgence of the disease on our shores. There is also a link to poverty, and, with poverty, poor nutrition and overcrowded living conditions.
The WHO needs US$300 million to reach its global TB control goals by 2005, only three years from now. These goals include 70 per cent detection and 85 per cent cure of detected cases. Jamaica is thankfully ahead of these targets. No effort must be spared to hold the gains made over decades in this country to control this dreaded and stigmatised disease, tuberculosis; and, indeed, to improve our statistics of case reduction, early detection, and cure. We have a good record.
