A new World Health Organization (WHO) study on tuberculosis has made a special reference to India for increasing by more than 40 percent its success in TB case detections during 1998-2003.

"The recent acceleration (in detection) has been mostly due to rapid implementation [of WHO-approved methods] in India, where case detection increased from 1.7 percent in 1998 to 47 percent in 2003, and in China where case detection increased from 30 percent in 2002 to 43 percent in 2003," the study said.

The study was published by authors in a special issue of JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) focusing on TB, reports the science portal SciDev.Net.

The study observed that new TB infections were rising in the world by one percent each year.
 
According to lead author Christopher Dye, of the WHO's Stop TB department, only 45 percent of the new TB infections worldwide in 2003 had been detected. They estimate that for 2005 this figure will be 60 percent - still short of the WHO's target of 70 percent.

The study's authors say that although efforts to detect and treat TB are making headway, particularly in Asia, the situation in Africa is less promising.

But overall, add the authors, the UN target of halving the number of people affected by the disease by 2015 can still be met.

"Undoubtedly many more patients are getting treatment and many more lives are being saved," said Dye.

"I am rather optimistic about what we can do [to achieve the UN goals] in Asian countries," added Dye. "I am somewhat less optimistic about what we are seeing in Africa."

In 1991, the WHO set targets for TB control to be reached by 2000: to detect 70 percent of new cases each year, and to successfully treat 85 percent of these. But the targets were missed and so deferred to 2005.

In 2000, the UN adopted the Millennium Development Goals, a set of targets to be achieved by 2015. These included halving the number of people suffering from and being killed by TB.

In 2003, 82 per cent of TB patients were treated successfully. This is close to the WHO's 2005 target of 85 percent. However, the authors point out that there are significant regional differences.

In China, for instance, 93 percent of patients were successfully treated, whereas in African nations, the figure is 71-74 percent.

Africa and Eastern Europe are particularly problematic, because of the region's HIV/AIDS epidemics and emergence of TB bacteria that are resistant to drugs.

AIDS patients are particularly vulnerable to TB because their immune systems are weakened.

Dye said that over the next 10-15 years, we could expect to see new diagnostics, drugs and possibly even a vaccine added to the arsenal used to fight TB.