‘Security Threat’ Associated With TB Is ‘More Real Than Ever,’ WHO Official Says in Opinion Piece

The "public health security threat" from tuberculosis is "more real than ever," Shigeru Omi, World Health Organization regional director for the Western Pacific, writes in a Philippine Star opinion piece, adding that "investment in TB control is of paramount importance."

Omi writes that although the Western Pacific is the "only" WHO region worldwide to have achieved the 2005 target of detecting 70% of new TB cases and successfully treating 90% of new cases, the region "still [has] a long way to go." He adds, "New, alarming challenges" to TB control, including drug-resistant forms of TB and HIV, "have arisen."

TB control in the Western Pacific "must be sustained," Omi writes, adding that drug-resistant forms of the disease must be "curb[ed]" or the region will "lose the battle against TB." He concludes that health officials "must do all [they] can to prevent" the "chilling reality" of possibly "return[ing] to the days when TB meant certain death" (Omi, Philippine Star, 7/21).