But a declaration of a TB emergency in Africa "will certainly help tackle the problem," Candido Mindu, head TB doctor at Maputo's busy Machava hospital, said Friday, a day after African health ministers meeting in his capital declared the emergency and promised to commit more money and staff to detecting and treating the disease.

The ministers at a World Health Organization regional meeting also appealed to donor governments to plow more resources into what is regarded as one of the world's most forgotten diseases. WHO's Stop-TB department has called for US$2.2 billion (