TB scourge

5,000 deaths a day World's biggest killer of women HIV/Aids a factor in rise in cases Curable with right drugs

The organisations say that more than half the sub-Saharan Africans infected with HIV - which can cause Aids - go on to develop TB.

Talks

African ministers and health experts are now gathering in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, ahead of a meeting beginning on Thursday to examine ways of trying to deal with Aids, malaria and tuberculosis on the continent - Africa's three big killers.

The meeting, jointly organised by the OAU and the United Nations, is expected to be attended by some 47 African heads of state, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, the OAU Secretary General, Salim Ahmed Salim, and the former United States president, Bill Clinton.

Latest figures indicate that more than 25 million people in Africa are infected with the HIV virus.

Malaria kills some 7,000 people every day in Africa.

The number of TB cases is growing by 10% a year in Africa and will reach 3.3 million a year by 2005 say the UN.