South Korea Announces Plan To Eradicate TB Nationwide by 2030

The government of South Korea on Tuesday announced a plan to eradicate tuberculosis in the country by 2030, Yonhap News reports (Yonhap News, 9/26). Under the plan, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aims to spend about $57 million to reduce by 2010 TB incidence from 390 cases per one million people to 293 cases per one million people and increase by 2010 the treatment success rate from 67% to 85%. KCDC's 2030 TB eradication target is 20 years ahead of the World Health Organization's goal (Park, Korea Times, 9/26). KCDC plans to reach its target by increasing personnel and treatment facilities nationwide. It also will increase the level of attention given to TB patients who need long-term treatment and conduct mandatory TB testing among 300,000 to 500,000 vulnerable people, such as homeless people and prison inmates. KCDC also plans to provide financial support to low-income people living with TB beginning in 2009 and boost medical support for people with drug-resistant TB (Yonhap News, 9/26). Starting in 2010, the government plans to provide TB patients with treatment until they are cured, according to the Korea Times. KCDC also plans to dispatch TB experts to public health centers beginning next year (Korea Times, 9/26). South Korea records about 35,000 new TB cases and approximately 3,000 TB-related deaths annually (Shin, Korea Herald, 9/27).