Conference building; delegates arriving; Koffia speaking; conference in progress.




Initials GEM/V/FJ/BB



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Background: Delegates from thirty-one countries are La Abidjan, the Ivory Coast capital, for the annual conference of the International Union Against Tuberculosis.

The Ivory Coast Minister of Health, Dr. Ndia Koffia, opened the five-day conference on Friday. It is the first time the Union has met away from its headquarters in Paris, and African problems are prominent on the agenda.

Delegates will discuss the lack of qualified medical staff and of foreign exchange to buy medicine and vaccines, and the need to form charitable organisations in African states.

Immediately after the International meeting, there will be a conference of West African national associations against tuberculosis, a disease that kills two out of every one thousand Africans.

Mali, Ghana, Upper Volta, Niger, Dahomey and Ivory Coast are the only African members of the International Union, but observers from Togo, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Liberia are also attending the conference.