WORLD TUBERCULOSIS DAY 24th MARCH 2004

Motion Text

That this House supports the World Health Organisation's World Tuberculosis Day on 24th March 2004 and recognises that poorly managed tuberculosis (TB) programmes are threatening to make TB incurable; notes that someone dies of TB every fifteen seconds and that this year more people than ever before will die of TB as new outbreaks are occurring in Eastern Europe and Africa where TB deaths are increasing after almost 40 years of steady decline; further notes that from a public health perspective incomplete treatment of TB is worse than no treatment at all resulting in a rise in multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) which is much more expensive to cure than non-MDR-TB; and calls on the Government to acknowledge that the sustainability of TB programmes require Government commitment and international action across the health sector.