WHO report 2005: TB linked to HIV at alarming levels in Africa.

The battle against tuberculosis (TB) is being successfully fought in most areas of the world but in Africa the disease has reached alarming proportions with an increasing number of cases and deaths linked to HIV said the World Health Organization in its WHO Report 2005 Global Tuberculosis Control: Surveillance Planning Financing released on 24 March to coincide with World TB Day. The WHO Report focuses on five principal indicators: incidence prevalence deaths case detection and treatment success. It finds that its prevalence has declined worldwide by more than 20 per cent since 1990 and that incidence rates are falling or stable in all regions except in Africa where TB rates have tripled since 1990 in countries with high HIV prevalence and continue to rise at 3 to 4 per cent annually. (excerpt)