Threat of a Different Disease

"Refugee camps near Afghanistan, now being sought out by hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the war, are in danger of becoming giant petri dishes for the spread of a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease: tuberculosis.

"Last year in the United States, TB was at an all-time low, infecting 16,377 people, all but a few of whom were cured. Last year in impoverished nations, however, the ancient scourge killed more than 2 million people.

"Afghanistan has the second-highest TB rate of 23 eastern Mediterranean nations surveyed by the World Health Organization. . . . Because just one person with active, untreated TB can infect 10 to 15 others a year, the refugee camps have become 'time bombs,' officials say. WHO should move immediately to set up emergency TB eradication programs in the camps, and developed nations should help provide the estimated $4 million the program would cost.

". . . To combat this growing global threat in the longer term, Congress should support a petition being circulated by Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in the Senate and James Leach (R-Iowa) in the House calling on President Bush to set aside $1 billion over five years for a new 'global fund' established by WHO and the World Bank to treat and contain TB, as well as AIDS and malaria.

". . . A billion dollars may seem like a lot of money, but as billionaire financier George Soros pointed out at a news conference on TB [in late October], the United States currently devotes less than one-tenth of 1 percent of its gross domestic product to foreign aid, down from nearly 1 percent in the early 1960s. Other industrialized nations give twice the US amount.

". . . Preventing the spread of the deadliest infectious diseases is more than a moral imperative. It is a practical necessity, both for Third World economic development and for prevention of new global epidemics."

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