Tanzania starts national campaign against TB

Tanzanian Prime Minister Edward Lowasa on Saturday launched a nationwide campaign against tuberculosis.

The prime minister called upon ordinary people as well as anti- disease specialists to join hands in curbing the spread of the infectious disease in the country, according to reports reaching here from Dodoma where the national campaign was officially launched.

Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria are the three killer diseases in Tanzania.

The Tanzanian national planning committee on controlling tuberculosis and leprosy said in its report that more than 60,000 people fall prey to TB while 7,000 people lose their lives to the disease each year.

The report said that Dar es Salaam is the region in the country that has the highest incidence of tuberculosis.

According to the latest available United Nations statistics, the TB incidence in Tanzania in 2004 was 479 per 100,000 people whereas the TB death rate for the same year was 78 per 100,000 people.

Source: Xinhua