23/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - World TB Day on Thursday 22 March provided an opportunity to raise awareness of the deterioration in the TB situation in Eastern Europe, where 450,000 people get infected with tuberculosis every year and nearly 70,000 of them die from the disease. According to World Health Organisation figures and other sources, described as 'alarming' by the European Disease Prevention and Control Centre in Stockholm, Eastern Europe has the highest levels of multi-drug resistant TB in any of the WHO areas. Some 73% of new cases are reported in Romania, Ukraine, Turkey, the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. More than 23% of new cases of TB in the WHO European Region are reported by EU countries. (oj)