Asia faces trillion dollar TB-fighting bill
Eleven Asian nations, including India, faces the biggest threat from tuberculosis risk being saddled with a whopping trillion dollar economic burden over the next 10 years if they do not beef up their anti-TB strategy, a landmark study shows.
By Agencies |
WASHINGTON: Eleven Asian nations, including India, faces the biggest threat from tuberculosis risk being saddled with a whopping trillion dollar economic burden over the next 10 years if they do not beef up their anti-TB strategy, a landmark study shows.
Led by India and China, the countries are already implementing a prevention and treatment strategy, popularly known as DOTS introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 1990s.
But the DOTS (the directly observed therapy) strategy was not sufficient to reduce the incidence of the disease, particularly in HIV-infected people and due to drug resistance, and had to be restructured.
A World Bank study released last week for the first time captured the economic benefits of extending the revamped DOTS strategy as proposed in the organization's Global Plan to Stop TB covering the 2006-2015 period.
The research covered 22 "high-burden" tuberculosis-endemic countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Vietnam.
"These Asian nations have to grapple with a 1.17 trillion dollar economic cost over a 10 year period if TB prevention and control are sustained at current levels of treatment," Ramanan Laxminarayan, an economist who led the study, told media.
"But if they embrace WHO's global plan they could collectively save about $10 billion each year or $100 billion during the 10 year period," he said. "However, the costs of the global plan may be greater than these benefits in some countries."
Led by India and China, the countries are already implementing a prevention and treatment strategy, popularly known as DOTS introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 1990s.
But the DOTS (the directly observed therapy) strategy was not sufficient to reduce the incidence of the disease, particularly in HIV-infected people and due to drug resistance, and had to be restructured.
A World Bank study released last week for the first time captured the economic benefits of extending the revamped DOTS strategy as proposed in the organization's Global Plan to Stop TB covering the 2006-2015 period.
The research covered 22 "high-burden" tuberculosis-endemic countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Vietnam.
"These Asian nations have to grapple with a 1.17 trillion dollar economic cost over a 10 year period if TB prevention and control are sustained at current levels of treatment," Ramanan Laxminarayan, an economist who led the study, told media.
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"But if they embrace WHO's global plan they could collectively save about $10 billion each year or $100 billion during the 10 year period," he said. "However, the costs of the global plan may be greater than these benefits in some countries."
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