Summary: the role of health communication in achieving global TB control goals -- lessons from Peru Vietnam and beyond.

Nearly 2 billion people around the world are infected with the bacillus that causes tuberculosis (TB). Each year about 8.4 million people develop active or infectious TB and over 2 million deaths are TB-related. Some 95 percent of global TB cases and 99 percent of TB deaths occur in the developing world. In most of these countries TB affects the most economically productive age group (those 15 to 54 years of age) pushing many families into poverty or preventing them from moving up the economic ladder. An effective and widely accepted treatment for TB known as Directly Observed Therapy--Short Course or DOTS is now the globally adopted strategy for TB control. The World Health Organization (WHO) set a global target of detecting 70 percent of infectious cases and curing 85 percent of those by the year 2005. Few countries are able to expand DOTS coverage to enough people to meet those targets. The main constraints to achieving global targets include lack of political commitment insufficient and ineffective use of financial resources little health care worker training or development poor health system organization poor quality and an irregular supply of anti-TB drugs and weak communication components in TB control programs. (excerpt)