Brazil hints at new focus on tuberculosis:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
The Brazilian health ministry's head of epidemiological surveillance has hinted at an intensification of efforts to reduce the incidence and mortality of tuberculosis. Jarbas Barbosa argues that with 85,000 carriers and 6,000 deaths per year, it is a public health priority for the government. He was speaking at the opening last week of a new TB monitoring centre in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state. Of concern too is that 8% of Brazil's TB cases also have AIDS; conversely, a quarter of all AIDS cases present with TB. The national TB programme (PNCT) has been given R$120m (US$42m) until 2007 to tackle the disease.