UN-backed Global Fund awards Myanmar $7 million grant to combat TB

A United Nations-sponsored fund today agreed to provide $7 million for a two-year programme strengthening the fight against tuberculosis in Myanmar, one of the countries worst-hit by the disease.

The grant will expand the national TB programme to regions not yet covered, with the aim of improving, by 2006, detection of new cases to at least 75 per cent, and to maintain and improve to 85 per cent or more the treatment success rate among new positive cases registered.

According to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Myanmar is one of the world's 22 high-burden countries for tuberculosis, with 80,000 new cases of the life-threatening disease every year.

The funds will be managed by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), except for anti-TB drugs, which already come from the UN World Health Organization's (WHO) Global TB Drug Facility.