Although the global battle against tuberculosis has largely been successful, the disease still poses a serious threat in China, especially for poor people, and will only be entirely eradicated through greater financial protection for patients and the elimination of social discrimination, according to experts speaking ahead of World Tuberculosis Day, which falls on March 24.
A report published by the World Health Organization said that in the past 20 years China has made great progress in the control and prevention of TB, which has resulted in a significant decline in the disease. Meanwhile, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, China's top health authority, said the number of new cases has declined steadily in the past two decades.
Last year, 889,381 new cases were reported on the Chinese mainland, a decline of 1.7 percent from 2013, and 2,240 people died, the commission said.
However, the commission's figures show that TB still ranks second on a list of highly infectious diseases in terms of the number of cases reported and resultant deaths.
"Tuberculosis remains the No 1 one public health threat from an infectious disease in China," Bernhard Schwartlander, WHO representative in China, said. "There are still an estimated 1 million new cases of TB in China every year. Disturbingly, the highest rate of tuberculosis infection is among the poor."
WHO statistics show that 9 million new cases of TB are reported globally every year, leading to about 1.5 million deaths.
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As an airborne disease, TB can be transmitted by coughs, sneezes, contact with an infected person's saliva and even through conversation, which make prevention more difficult than for some other infectious diseases, Schwartlander said.Â
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Although the global battle against tuberculosis has largely been successful, the disease still poses a serious threat in China, especially for poor people, and will only be entirely eradicated through greater financial protection for patients and the elimination of social discrimination, according to experts speaking ahead of World Tuberculosis Day, which falls on March 24.
