ARMENIAN HEALTH OFFICIALS SAY TB FIGURES UP

Azg, Yerevan
25 Mar 06

Excerpt from report by Gohar Gevorkyan in Armenian newspaper Azg on 25
March headlined “Despite efforts, the TB situation remains worrying”.

The TB situation in the world remains worrying.

[Passage omitted: 9m new TB cases registered in the world].

Yesterday, on the occasion of world day for fighting tuberculosis,
leaders and representatives of the anti-TB national centre said that
the disease has increased noticeably over the past decade.

The head of the centre, Vaan Pogosyan, said that in 2005 there were
6,455 people with TB in Armenia, 2,006 of which were new cases. He
said that 167 patients died of TB.

He said that the early detection and proper treatment are the main
tasks for the state. By all means this does not mean that nothing is
being done by way of treatment. Several hospitals and clinics were
refurbished within the framework of the programme. Laboratory and
other equipment were bought, the centre was set up, and polyclinics
were tasked with treating the disease.

By the way, the diagnosis and treatment of TB is free of charge in
Armenia. Specialists believe that with early diagnosis and the right
treatment the disease can be treated.

Pogosyan said that the programme will continue till 2011 and that the
government is going to endorse a new strategy and allocate more than
1bn drams for this. Over the next five years the Global foundation
will allocate 7m dollars to support the programme.

The head of the World Health Organization office in Yerevan, Elizabeth
Hoff, talked about the work that has been done so far and said that
more needs to be done to prevent the disease from spreading and to
treat it.