UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that the rate of tuberculosis' (TB) decline is too slow and efforts to combat the disease are "falling short."

Ban made the remarks on the occasion of the World TB Day, despite a new UN report says that the percentage of the global population falling ill to TB which claims a life every second, is dropping annually.

"Millions of people are benefiting from treatment through coordinated national efforts, but millions more are still missing out," he said, warning that "unless we accelerate action, the numbers of those falling ill will continue to grow."

The total number of new cases in 2007 has stabilized, up to 9.27 million from 9.24 million in the previous year, said a report released on Tuesday by the UN World Health Organization (WHO).

Rates reached their peak at 142 cases per 100,000 people in 2004, but have decreased to 137 per 100,000 people in 2007.

Ban stressed the need to intensify the fight against multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), as well as the TB/HIV co-epidemic.

The new WHO study reveals that one-quarter of all TB deaths are HIV-related, twice as many as previous recognized. In 2007, 1.37 million people living with HIV fell ill to TB.

"These findings point to an urgent need to find, prevent and treat tuberculosis in people living with HIV and to test for HIV in all patients in order to provide prevention, treatment and care," said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, urging countries to step up cooperation to combat both diseases.

There has been a steep climb in testing for HIV among people being treated for TB, especially in Africa, the report says. In 2004, only 4 percent of TB patients in the region were tested for HIV, but that has surged to 37 percent in 2007.

"We have to stop people living with HIV from dying of tuberculosis," said Michel Sidibe, who heads the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), underscoring the need for universal access to HIV prevention and treatment to include TB prevention, diagnosis and care.

"When HIV and TB services are combined, they save lives," the UNAIDS chief said.

Ban in his Tuesday remarks 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 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

"In this time of economic crisis, we must protect investments in global health, particularly to protect the most vulnerable," he said, calling for partnership and innovation to "prevent disease, save lives and enable communities to thrive."

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2009)