World Tuberculosis Day Observed (2/2)



The health agency has a 5-step program to guarantee that TB patients take their medicine correctly. The program is called Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course, or DOTS. Directly observed means that local health care workers watch to make sure patients take their medicine every day. Full treatment usually lasts from 6 to 9 months.

Some people, however, stop the DOTS program as soon as they feel better. That only makes the infection" class="hjdict" word="infection" target=_blank>infection more difficult to treat. TB continues and grows into drug-resistant forms when patients fail to finish taking their medicine.

The World Health Organization declared TB a public health emergency in 1993. Since then, a new report shows worldwide tuberculosis rates are steady or falling. The report says the percentage of the world's population with the disease reached a high level in 2004, and remained steady in 2005. If this continues for the next 3 to 4 years, WHO officials believe their Millennium Development Goal could be reached. The goal is to discover at least 70% of infectious cases and successfully treat 85% of those cases by 2015.