TB still claiming two millions deaths a year: studies

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Tuberculosis is still on the rampage, claiming around two million lives a year, especially in the developing world, despite concerned efforts to fight the disease.

And while the disease in the majority of cases is curable, in California where notified cases of TB decreased by 33 percent from 1994 to 2003, "the proportion of multi-drug resistant cases has not decreased but remains steady," according to a study in the June 8 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

"Tuberculosis continues its 3,000-year history of decimation," said Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, an editor of JAMA which dedicates its latest edition in its entirety to the disease.

Around nine million new cases of tuberculosis are registered annually,...