Secretary-General’s Message on World Tuberculosis Day
秘书长世界防治结核病日致辞
24 March 2013
2013年3月24日
Two decades ago, the World Health Organization declared tuberculosis a global health emergency and soon after launched a global TB strategy that was eventually adopted by nearly every country. More than 50 million people have since been successfully treated for this highly contagious disease, and 20 million lives saved.
20年前,世界卫生组织宣布结核病为全球性健康紧急状况,并在不久后宣布了全球结核病战略。最终,几乎所有国家都采纳了该战略。从那时以来,5 000多万名罹患这种烈性传染病者已被治愈,2 000万人的生命得到拯救。
The world has already achieved the Millennium Development target of halting and reversing the TB epidemic by 2015. We are on track to meet the global target of a 50 per cent reduction in deaths from 1990 levels, although Africa and Europe still lag behind.
全世界业已实现在2015年之前制止和扭转结核病的千年发展目标。虽然非洲和欧洲仍落后,但我们有望在全球实现将1990年死亡人数减少50%的目标。
New diagnostics, new drugs and the promise of new vaccines have the potential to further accelerate progress against TB, which still kills 1.4 million people a year – more than any infectious disease other than AIDS. But two obstacles stand in the way.
尽管目前结核病每年仍导致140万人死亡,超过除艾滋病外的任何传染病,但由于新诊断方法、新药物、新疫苗的产生,防治结核病方面的进展有可能进一步加快。然而仍有两条拦路虎。
The first is the emergence of TB strains that fail to respond to first-line drugs. Worldwide, an estimated 630,000 people are infected with multi-drug-resistant TB – inflicting new burdens on patients, families and health systems and threatening to reverse hard-won gains.
第一,出现了一线药物对其不起作用的结核病株。全球估计有630 000人感染耐多药结核病,给患者、家庭、卫生系统带来了新负担,并有可能扭转来之不易的进展。
The second is the need for funding. Drug resistance is a major addition to the health budget: it costs at least 10 times more to treat multi-drug-resistant TB than drug-sensitive TB. Low- and middle-income countries are already footing two-thirds of the bill for TB care and control. They rely on the international community to provide the remaining third.
第二,资金不足。抗药性使医疗费用大幅度增加,因为治疗耐多药结核病的费用至少十倍于治疗对药物敏感结核病的费用。中低收入国家支付的结核病护理与控制费用已占全球三分之二。它们依靠国际社会提供其余的三分之一。
On this World Tuberculosis Day, which comes just over 1,000 days before the Millennium Development Goal deadline, it will be critical to ensure these countries can afford the cost of preventing deaths from TB and arresting its spread. This is central to ending TB in our lifetime.
今年的世界防治结核病日,距离实现千年发展目标的最后期限还有仅1 000天多一点的时间。此时此刻,至关重要的是确保这些国家有能力承担防止因结核病死亡和制止结核病蔓延的费用。这一点对于在我们有生之年根除结核病具有核心意义。