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Learning from the Tuberculosis Pandemic – Global Issues

There is no shortage of pandemics that continue to ravage humanity. Tuberculosis is the cause of more than 1.5 million deaths in 2020, and more than a third of these deaths take place in sub-Saharan Africa. Credit: Athar Parvaiz / IPS
  • Idea by Morounfolu Olugbosi (johannesburg)
  • Joint press service

Understandably, people everywhere are looking forward to getting back to normal. COVID-19, thought, has evolved to be milder, so it’s time to stop worrying and get on with our lives. Although the virus is still present, many think it has reached circulating levels and thus restrictions are being lifted worldwide, despite warnings from many epidemiologists.

There is no shortage of pandemics that continue to ravage humanity. Malaria kills more than 620,000 people in 2020. TB is the cause of death of more than 1.5 million people in 2020, and more than a third of these deaths takes place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Before COVID-19, there was still hope that the TB pandemic was beginning to subside. Over the past decade, case and death rates have steadily declined while research and development efforts have yielded breakthroughs.

After four decades without a new drug approved to treat TB, three have been approved in the past ten years. New technology can not only diagnose TB more easily and quickly than before, but also determine if the infection is resistant to drugs. That’s seen as progress in the TB world – but there’s always the challenge of getting the technology to the people who need it. And that’s where the COVID-19 pandemic really hits.

Dr.Morounfolu (Folu) Olugbosi

In 2020, the most recent statistics we have for TB, the number of deaths is the same as in 2017, with a five-year elimination. An estimated 9.9 million people are infected with TB, but only 5.8 million are diagnosed. We have spent ten years progressing on this standard. And only about a third of the estimated 450,000 people with MDR-TB or Rifampin-resistant TB begin treatment in 2020, a 15% decrease from the previous year.

In Africa, countries such as Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda have been making progress in combating TB, with mortality from disease is decreasingbut this drop has ended — all due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related control measures.

In 2015, the world pledged to reduce TB deaths by 90% by 2030, and we have yet to meet this goal. Epidemiologists assessing the impact of this failure have found that, before the COVID-19 pandemic began, Sub-Saharan Africa has been attacked plagued by tuberculosis, with severe economic impact and significant loss of life resulting from failure to meet this ambitious standard.

And yet, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that, in sub-Saharan Africa, domestic spending on TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment services has decrease in the past 10 years. It’s no wonder that the pressures of COVID-19 have ripped through the TB safety net. In Africa, we’ve also decided it’s okay to live with a deadly disease.

Yes, the total global spending on this disease is less than half what it is, but for us in Africa, TB is not a disease of any other place. It is here and we need to roll up our sleeves and fight back or it will never stop giving us trouble.

No disease is acceptable, especially deadly infections like tuberculosis and COVID-19. All diseases need to be tackled with new technologies and broad access is needed to ensure that they are used appropriately. Endemic is never good enough.

© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service

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