UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday called on all countries in the world to work together and fight against tuberculosis (TB) amid the spreading financial crisis.

In a message marking World TB Day, Ban said although strides have been made on combating TB, the pace of the disease's decline is "far too slow," with the contagium still claiming a life every 20 seconds.

He underlined the need to prevent infection, to detect cases at an early stage and to provide treatment for all. Ban also stresses the importance of redoubling efforts to fight multi-drug-resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR-TB) forms of TB as well as the TB/HIV co-epidemic.

The secretary-general urged countries to "protect investments in global health, particularly to protect the most vulnerable" in this time of economic crisis.

"Global cooperation in fighting tuberculosis, and all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), must be essential to our task ahead," he said, calling for partnership and innovation to "prevent disease, save lives and enable communities to thrive."

According to the 2009 Global TB Control Report, released Tuesday by the World Health Organization (WHO), the total number of new cases in 2007 has stabilized, up to 9.27 million from 9.24 million the year before.

The report shows that one-quarter of all TB deaths are HIV-related, twice as many as previous recognized. In 2004, only 4 percent of TB patients in Africa were tested for HIV, but that has surged to 37 per cent in 2007. Some 1.37 million people living with HIV fell ill to TB around the world in 2007.

The secretary-general also welcomed the commitments made by governments, multilateral organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), foundations, the private sector, academia and researchers to halt and reverse the spread of the disease and press ahead with efforts to reach the MDGs, eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2009)