'S'pore's TB rate relatively high'

'S'pore's TB rate relatively high'

SINGAPORE (AP): The number of tuberculosis cases is still relatively high in affluent, highly modernized Singapore, health officials said on Friday.

Singapore's 2000 rate of 47 new tuberculosis cases per 100,000 residents is "still much higher than many developed countries," such as Australia's rate of five per 100,000 and the United States' rate of seven per 100,000, the Health Ministry said in a statement.

A total of 47 new cases were reported in the city-state of 4 million people in 2000, down from 48 in 1999 and 57 in 1998, according to official statistics.

Ninety-seven people died from tuberculosis in Singapore last year, down from 105 in 1999.

Tuberculosis kills 2 million people every year and is the world's leading curable infectious killer, according to the World Health Organization.