INFECTIOUS DISEASES SEEN RISING : FUNDING URGED TO PREVENT GLOBAL CRISIS.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

The United Nations health organization issued a report today warning that more money must be spent globally to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases and stem the tide of nearly 50,000 deaths these diseases cause daily.

A report published by the World Health Organization found that the outbreak of 30 new infectious diseases in the past two decades, combined with the deadly resurgence of diseases once thought to be under control has created a growing health crisis.

``This report raises the alarm that if we don't do something about infectious diseases now, the problem will grow worse,'' said David Brandling-Bennett, deputy director of the Pan-American Health Organization, a regional office of the World Health Organization.

The report found that 17 million people died from infectious diseases in 1995. Many of those deaths could have been prevented with early detection or immunizations, according to the report.

``Our position is pay now or pay later, but paying for treatment is much more expensive,'' Brandling-Bennett said, adding that the price of prevention is much lower.

Compounding the health problem is the increase of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the report said.

``We are standing on the brink of a global crisis in infectious diseases,'' Hiroshi Nakajima, the Director General of the World Health Organization, said in a written statement. ``No country is safe from them. No country can any longer afford to ignore their threat.''

In the United States, antibiotic resistant bacteria has led to an increase in E. coli bacteria and caused 60 percent of hospital-acquired infections, Brandling-Bennett said.

While the medical community once thought that new drugs would be developed to combat the resistant bacteria, it now finds it can't keep pace, Brandling-Bennett said.

Of the many deadly infectious diseases outlined in the report, of most concern to the World Health Organization are the new diseases with no known cure, such as the Ebola virus and HIV/AIDS.

``This category is probably the most frightening,'' Brandling-Bennett said.

The report calls for expanding research on these diseases, to trace their evolution, to find methods of controlling them, and to develop drugs to cure them.

The United States is also experiencing outbreaks of diseases once thought to be under control, Brandling-Bennett said.

``A major source of tuberculosis in this country are the immigrants, a third of whom may be infected,'' Brandling-Bennett said.

Although the frequency of tuberculosis in the United States decreased in 1995, it killed almost 3.1 million globally, according to the report.

The report also found that treatable diseases such as cholera and malaria had claimed millions of lives last year.

``The optimism of relatively few years ago that many of these diseases could easily be brought under control has led to a fatal complacency among the international community,'' Nakajima said.