For many years, tuberculosis has felt like a distant, declining disease. Yet in the past decade, virulent, untreatable forms of TB have been on the rise in Europe. Although European leaders have been slow to recognize it, TB poses a public health threat that won't disappear on its own.

In Europe, 50 people get sick with TB and eight people die of the disease every hour, according to the World Health Organization (WHO.) Currently, 15 percent of TB cases in Europe are multi-drug resistant.

"The drug resistance that we are seeing now is without doubt the most alarming TB situation on the continent since World War II," said Markku Niskala, secretary-general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Europe a hot zone for the disease

The WHO said the "hottest zones" of drug-resistant strains were in countries that border the EU. Leaders need to take action and not allow TB to get further out of control, Niskala said.

To raise public awareness and political pressure, the Red Cross, WHO and other health organizations have launched the Stop TB Partnership in Europe. The partnership wants to better detect, control and treat TB.

"TB has always been low on the European Union agenda. It's a mystery there has been so little concern in addressing the TB epidemic in Europe," said Michael Luhan, an official at the Red Cross in Geneva. "The purpose of this partnership is to stimulate a much greater sense of concern, engagement and commitment on the part of the European Union to address this problem in its own region."

In particular, the Baltic States, Eastern Europe and Central Asia also have increasing rates of drug-resistant TB. The rise of HIV has worsened the problem, especially in Russia and Ukraine. HIV infection makes people more susceptible to TB.

A deadly disease

Tuberculosis, a respiratory illness caused by a bacteria, is the world's deadliest curable infectious disease. The WHO estimates that 1.7 million people died from TB in 2004.

Not everyone who has the TB bacteria gets sick or is infectious. Sometimes symptoms can show up years after the initial infection. TB spreads when contagious people cough the bacteria out of their lungs.