Thursday, March 23 2006 11:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: India is expected to have met the target set by the United Nations to control tuberculosis in 2005, the World Health Organisation has said.

The target comprised detection of 70 per cent of TB cases and successful treatment of 85 per cent of those cases by the end of last year.

India, China, Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar are among the high-burden countries expected to have met the target but confirmation would be available only by the end of this year, the WHO said in its 'Global Tuberculosis Control 2006' report.

Another 26 countries, including the Philippines and Vietnam, had already met the target, it said.

The report, released yesterday, estimates that 1.7 million people died of the disease in 2004, with 8.9 million new cases that year, and the global number of cases per capita is rising at one per cent annually.

The Americas, south-east Asia and the western Pacific are on track to achieve targets for the control of tuberculosis, although critical new challenges in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Eastern Europe have pushed up worldwide rates, the report said.

"There is clear evidence that investment in TB control works. Even in low-income countries with enormous financial constraints, programmes are operating effectively and producing results," WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook said introducing the report ahead of World TB Day on March 24.

"This same commitment needs to be replicated in African countries and other areas where funding and priority for TB control remains fragile," he added.