NAIROBI (Reuters):

About 13 Kenyans die of tuberculosis (TB) every hour and there is little immediate prospect of improvement, the head of a leading national health organisation said on Saturday, which was World Tuberculosis Day.

Allan Ragi, executive director of KANCO - a consortium of more than 850 civil-society organisations - told Reuters Kenya stood out in the region for its poor tuberculosis programme and high infection rates.

"If you call up a Kenyan Member of Parliament and ask about TB, they have no idea about it," Ragi said in an interview.

About 117,000 cases were diagnosed by 2006, but that was possibly only half of total infections in Kenya, he said.

To spur awareness, activists took out double-page advertisements in the national dailies on Saturday and called on the Kenyan Government to follow their lead.

"The Government needs to declare a TB national emergency. They must campaign the way they have for HIV, and give the money they promised to fight TB, but it is not happening," Ragi said.

Over one million Africans lose their lives to TB every year. The continent has the world's highest rate of infection and is one of the few places where TB incidence is still on the rise.

TB is a preventable and curable disease transmitted like the common cold. It attacks the lungs and can infect other parts of the body. If left untreated, an infected person will pass it on to an estimated 10 to 15 people, experts say.