WORLD TUBERCULOSIS DAY: RED CROSS RED CRESCENT PROGRAMMES PLAY KEY ROLE IN GLOBAL TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL

Reuters AlertNet, UK
March 22 2007

Source: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies (IFRC) – Switzerland
Website:

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By providing increased access to tuberculosis treatment to vulnerable
groups across the world, and ensuring higher treatment completion,
Red Cross and Red Crescent community-based programmes play a key role
in global tuberculosis control, says the International Federation of
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Two successful examples include the Russian Red Cross programme in
Belgorod, where nearly 2,000 patients are currently being treated –
since 2002, the defaulter rate has fallen from 28% to 4%. The second
example is that of the Armenian Red Cross programme, where 86% of
TB patients complete their treatment, compared to only 59% for those
who are not under Red Cross care.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) tuberculosis (TB)
remains a major cause of death worldwide – in 2005, 1.6 million
people died of TB, including 195,000 HIV-positive patients. In its
Global Tuberculosis Control Report for 2007, published on 22 March,
WHO reports an estimated 8.8 million new tuberculosis cases in 2005,
7.4 million of which occurred in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. (*)

Community-based tuberculosis care has been shown to significantly
improve both access to services and adherence to treatment, according
to the WHO report, and although it is in place in many countries,
it needs to be promoted actively and implemented more widely.

"We agree fully with this finding, and, since 2005, we have committed
to scaling up our tuberculosis control programmes across the world,"
says International Federation Secretary General Markku Niskala.

"Through the work of their community-based volunteers and staff,
our Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have a privileged access
to particularly vulnerable people, including the homeless, the
elderly, the very poor, alcoholics, drug-users, prisoners, and other
marginalized groups. They are also auxiliaries to governments and as
such, can work particularly closely with national health systems,"
he adds.

Red Cross and Red Crescent nurses and volunteers help patients
complete their treatment, provide them with food as well as social
and psychological support, and also play a key role in fighting the
stigma associated with tuberculosis. The completion of treatment is
essential not only for patients to be cured, but also to prevent
the development of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB),
and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), forms of the
disease which are much more difficult and expensive to treat, and
with lower rates of cure. Since 2005, the Kazakhstan Red Crescent and
Romanian Red Cross have implemented successful two-year programmes to
treat some 400 people with MDR-TB, with support from Eli Lilly and
Company, the pharmaceutical company, in the framework of the Lilly
MDR-TB Partnership. "We are very proud to help the Red Cross and Red
Crescent support hundreds of patients with MDR-TB, in a programme
that is particularly effective," explains Patrizia Carlevaro, Head
of the International Aid Unit at Lilly. "What makes this programme
very special is the degree of community involvement. People who have
been cured are recruited as Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers,
and in turn, provide essential psychological support to those who
are under treatment."

"In many areas of the world, HIV and TB are a dual epidemic, and
joint action is also essential to treat and care for people who are
co-infected," explains Bruce Eshaya-Chauvin, head of the Federation’s
Health Department in Geneva. "People with HIV are much more likely
to develop active TB because of a depressed immune system, and,
once they do, they will die within weeks if they are not treated for
TB immediately."

To address this situation, many Red Cross and Red Crescent National
Societies are integrating their TB and HIV programmes, particularly
in Asia (such as Myanmar) and Africa (such as Kenya, Mozambique,
South Africa and Zimbabwe).

The International Federation is an active partner in the Global Stop
TB Partnership, whose aim is to halve the prevalence and death rates
of TB by 2015. In 2006, the Federation also established the Stop TB
Partnership for Europe, which brings together the WHO and 30 leading
agencies and NGOs, in order to bring about a more effective response
to the TB epidemic in Europe.

(*) Tuberculosis is a very contagious disease, which spreads through
the air. If not treated, every person with active TB infects, on
average, 10 to 15 people each year.

For further information, or to set up interviews (ISDN line available
in Geneva), please contact:

Marie-Francoise Borel, Information Officer Tel: + 41 22 730 43 46 /
+ 41 79 217 33 45

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and
not of Reuters. ]