Extra financial assistance is required urgently by India and 21 other countries to meet the global targets of detecting and successfully curing a large percentage of TB patients by 2005, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) report. Experts working with WHO estimate that the total cost of TB control is $1.2 billion a year.

Worst affected countries, apart from India, are Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Russia, Afghanistan, Brazil, Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

Three quarters of the funding has already been covered by the countries affected, donors and other sources. The remaining $300 million each year are urgently needed to meet the target. "This is a race against time," Dr J W Lee, director of WHO's STOP TB Department, said, stating further that "poor control practices in many countries and the TB/HIV co-epidemic mean that urgent action needs to be taken to control TB. He further maintained that the funding gap is clearly identified and affordable, and that actions have to be taken immediately in order to meet these targets."

WHO's World Health Assembly has set global targets of detecting 70 per cent of TB patients and successfully curing 85 per cent of these patients by 2005.

Preliminary figures for patients treated in 2000 -- the last year for which figures are currently available -- show that on average the cure rate in the high burden countries has reached 84 per cent, which is extremely close to the target of 85 per cent. This is a significant increase from previous years.