Serving Others

I just learned over on The Just Life blog that:

The 2009 WHO Global Tuberculosis Update was launched earlier this month, providing the latest information on the state of the epidemic around the world. The report shows that in the last 15 years, 36 million people have been cured of tuberculosis, and eight million cases have been prevented. This progress attests to the effectiveness of the Stop TB Strategy and DOTS in the fight against tuberculosis.

There were an estimated 9.27 million incident cases of TB in 2007 (of which, 15% percent were among individuals who were also HIV-positive), a slight increase from 9.24 million in 2006. However, while the total number of TB cases is up due to population growth, the number of cases per capita is actually down 1%.

You can read the entire entry here: http://thejustlife.org/home/2009/12/19/36-million-cured-of-tb/

I was sensitized to the worldwide effects of TB, specifically in developing nations, after reading about the work of Dr. Paul Farmer in Mountains Beyond Mountains.  The newly released data from WHO is good news indeed, but there is plenty work left to be done.

God Bless,
RJ