Sri Lanka at the forefront of the fight against tuberculosis
Colombo (AsiaNews) - Sri Lanka "is at the forefront of the fight against tuberculosis (TB) and AIDS". The minister for health and nutrition, Nimal Siripala de Silva, spoke on March 24 in Colombo at the conference "I am stopping TB". For the world day for the fight against the disease, he recalled that "less than 5,000 new cases have been detected among a population of 20 million" in the country.
According to official data, a total of 8,497 cases were reported in 2007, and Sri Lanka is not one of the five countries of South East Asia where the disease is most widespread, which includes neighbouring India. It is estimated that a third of the world population has been affected by the TB bacterium, with 100 million new infections and more than 2 million deaths a year, mainly in Africa. But there is still much to be done, partly in consideration of the fact that "approximately 7 percent of patients do not respond to treatment", when "six months of uninterrupted treatment will cure the patient completely". And also because this disease is always dangerous "because of its close connection with AIDS". Those who are sick with AIDS lose their immune system defence, and are easy victims of TB. Silva also says that greater education and prevention are needed in society and in the schools, and those who are sick need to be told that the disease is curable and no longer carries the social stigma that it did in the recent past.
On March 24, Pope Benedict XVI also commemorated the world day for the fight against tuberculosis, and said that he is "particularly near to the sick and to their families. I hope for increased commitment on a worldwide level to alleviate this scourge. My appeal is addressed above all to the Catholic institutions, so that those who suffer may recognise, through their work, the risen Lord who gives them healing, comfort, and peace".
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