22 March 2010
Sheffield health specialist supports calls for action on TB
A specialist in public health at the University of Sheffield is supporting calls for global action on Tuberculosis (TB), in support of World TB Day which takes place this week (24 March 2010).
Dr Andrew Lee, from the University´s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), is a specialist in international health needs assessment and will be championing the theme of this year´s World TB Day; `Innovation.´ This year´s event marks the halfway point for the Global Plan to Stop TB (2006-2015) and will focus on finding innovative ways to combat the spread of the curable disease.
Dr Lee´s work has previously taken him overseas where he has run healthcare programmes in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. In 2003, he travelled to Afghanistan with a dedicated team of health professionals to deliver a primary health care and tuberculosis control programme in an area where there was little healthcare provision. Due to a lack of development and deprivation from years of conflict, people with TB had virtually no access to treatment. Those who could afford treatment would have had to travel for days in order to receive it.
Dr Lee predominately teaches Masters student applied public health, but is currently developing research into strengthening health systems in low and middle income countries.
TB is not a new disease but one that has plagued humankind for thousands of years. Despite finding a cure for the disease, we have not yet managed to overcome it and halt its spread in many countries. Annually around 9-10 million people are newly infected with it around the world, and up to 2.3 million individuals with TB will die from it. It is also estimated that there are around 9.6 – 13.3 million sufferers with this disease each year.
World TB Day, which is organised by the Stop TB Partnership, aims to raise public awareness of the need for countries to scale up efforts and seek new and innovative ways to stop TB in order to achieve the targets of the Partnership´s Global Plan. The event is held annually on 24 March to commemorate Dr Robert Koch´s discovery of the cause of TB in 1882. Whilst considerable progress has been made across the world, evidence suggest that much more can still be done to reach more people with care and find better tools to fight the disease.
Dr Lee said: "TB is closely related to many other issues such as poverty as well as social and health inequalities. Factors such as overcrowding, poor housing, lack of access to healthcare and, in recent decades, the associated global pandemic of HIV/AIDS, have all continued to fuel the TB problem. In countries such as India and Afghanistan, people often lacked access to treatment that was effective, affordable, acceptable and accessible. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that TB is a curable disease.
"For us in the UK, sometimes it is easy to dismiss TB as "not being our problem". However, we can act both locally and abroad. We need to advocate for continued efforts here in the UK as much as we need to abroad. For example, for marginalized groups in our society such as migrant communities TB is still very much a problem.
"We can cure TB and everyone from politicians to the general public should keep trying." Notes for Editors: The Stop TB Partnership, which is hosted by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, consists of more than 900 international organizations, countries, donors from the public and private sectors, and nongovernmental and governmental organizations that are working together to eliminate TB. The Partnership's Global Plan to Stop TB (2006-2015) sets forth a roadmap for halving TB prevalence and deaths compared with 1990 levels by 2015.
For further information or to arrange an interview with Dr Lee please contact: Lauren Anderson, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2221046 or email
l.h.anderson@sheffield.ac.uk
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