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<A HREF="http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe";>http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe</A> A $9.3b proposal outlines global campaign against TB By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, 10/22/2001 WASHINGTON - Far from public view, as many Americans worry about anthrax arriving in the mail and the Bush administration gives its daily briefings on the war on terrorism, world health officials have made progress fighting another global menace: the spread of tuberculosis. World Health Organization officials, teaming up with businessman George Soros, have put together a business plan to be released tomorrow that says $9.3 billion is needed in the next five years to significantly reduce the incidence of TB. Unlike still-developing global efforts to battle HIV/AIDS and malaria, the TB plan has detailed blueprints on how to attack the deadly bacterium in each of the 20 countries with the highest numbers of TB cases. A group of health and finance officials will be meeting in Washington today and tomorrow to put final touches on the plan. They had talked about canceling the meeting because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but decided to go ahead as scheduled. ''The show must go on,'' said J. W. Lee, the WHO's top TB-control official, in an interview. ''We're talking about 2 million people dying a year from TB. Before Sept. 11, many people thought that a $9 billion plan was impossible. But Sept. 11 proved money is not the issue. The issue is political will. So if the world wants to fight TB, the world will do it. Sept. 11 changed the whole paradigm of how we look at things.'' Jim Yong Kim, a Harvard infectious disease specialist who has helped draw attention to the problem of drug-resistant tuberculosis, said many Americans might now better understand the fears of the poor in contracting TB, which is passed in the air by tiny droplets from person to person, often via coughing. ''The fear we feel now with anthrax is what people in the developing countries, TB endemic areas, have been feeling every single day,'' Kim said. ''It's worse, actually. Think of the fear we have now in America, and now imagine the fear we would have if there wasn't a vaccine or Cipro available. That's what people in the developing world feel.'' Michael Vachon, a spokesman for Soros, who is chairman of the Open Society Institute, also said the Sept. 11 attacks ''make it even more important now that we pursue some kind of reform'' in the developing world. ''The inequities bred by globalization allow people like Osama bin Laden to draw people to their causes,'' Vachon said. ''Eliminating poverty isn't going to get rid of terrorism, but it will make it harder for these people to exist.'' The plan unveiled this week includes a call for about $900 million a year for five years from wealthy countries. The remainder of the TB-control cost is paid by developing countries. Soros will propose tomorrow that the International Monetary Fund oversee a new fund. An independent board would decide which programs are eligible for help from by this fund, and donor countries would decide which program to support. In addition to TB programs, another possible beneficiary could be the newly named Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which has so far received about $1.4 billion in pledges. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for $7 billion to $10 billion in additional funds annually to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa and infected about 25 million people there. In a private meeting in Brussels earlier this month, more than 40 participants agreed on the new name of the global fund, and also that the ''money can go not only to prevention but also to treatment of AIDS,'' said Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS, in an interview. Piot said he hoped the fund would be running by the end of the year. Even as US activists are asking the Bush administration and Congress to increase its $200 million pledge to $1 billion for the fund, Piot applauded the move but acknowledged it would be difficult. In contrast, the TB blueprint should look attractive to donor countries now, say advocates, who assert that reducing TB also would slow death rates from HIV/AIDS in the developing world. Health officials estimate that between one-third and one-half of people with AIDS in Africa die from tuberculosis, which often sets in when a person's immune system is weakened. In 1999, the latest year for which figures were available, 23 percent of the world's 8.4 million people sick with TB were given the recommended six-month treatment for the disease. With the additional funds, the WHO hopes to expand coverage to 70 percent of those ill. ''The TB world now knows what we need and where we can put the money,'' said Lee, the WHO official. ''We know how to do the job. We just need the money.'' John Donnelly can be reached by e-mail at <A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]%3Ci";> ">[EMAIL PROTECTED] </A>This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 10/22/2001. � <A HREF="http://www.boston.com/globe/search/copyright.html";>Copyright</A> 2001 Globe Newspaper Company. ============================================================ For meals, baking recipes and advice, visit veryBestBaking.com from Nestle. Enjoy hundreds of recipes and baking advice from trusted brands such as Nestle Toll House, Carnation Milk, and Libby's Pumpkin. http://click.topica.com/caaaduKb1ddNBb2HgmNf/Nestle ============================================================ Visit and show your support for the Grass Roots Oyate http://members.tripod.com/GrassRootsOyate Clemency for Leonard Peltier. 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