TUBERCULOSIS (TB) germs are working quietly and speedily with single-minded devotion to ensnare as many humans in their killing net as possible. This is the horrific future as revealed by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 21 this year in London, UK. Warning of a new drug-resistant strain of the disease, wHo states that TB will kill 30 million-people in the next 10 years. TB claimed a record three million lives worldwide last year.

This means that the lung disease has become more of a serious threat than AIDS or ebola. or malaria. Says Paul Nunn, chief of research Of WHO's global TB programme, that in UK alone, there were 6,000 cases OfTB each year resulting in at least 400 deaths, and the numbers were growing. Sadly, though effective drugs are in place, more often than not, these are not consumed in the pattern prescribed. This leads to the disease - the only one to be described by WHO as a global emergency - taking a turn for the worse.

The world health body is now looking towards the drugs industry and governments to spend as much as US $500 million a year to prevent TB from becoming. a global malady.