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Rise in TB deaths another fallout from the pandemic, WHO report reveals — Global Issues



An estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB last year, up 4.5% from 2020, and 1.6 million people died from the disease, including 187,000 HIV-positive.

The burden of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) also increased by 3% during the same period, with about 450,000 new cases of the antibiotic-resistant type rifampicin, or RR-TB.

This is the first time in many years that the number of people with TB and drug-resistant TB has both increased.

Learning from the pandemic

“If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that with solidarity, determination, innovation and fair use of tools, we can overcome serious health threats. . Apply those lessons to tuberculosis. It’s time to put an end to this perennial killer. Working together, we can end TB,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

TB is the world second deadly infectious killer, after COVID-19.

Bacterial disease usually affects the lungs, but both are can be prevented and cured.

Health services as a whole have been hit hard during the pandemic, but its impact on the TB response has been particularly severe – a situation made worse by ongoing conflicts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Continuing challenges in providing and accessing essential TB services mean Many people suffer from undiagnosed and untreated diseases.

Diagnosis and treatment refuse

The number of newly diagnosed people has dropped from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million in 2020, according to the latest figures. Global TB report. Although there was a partial recovery to 6.4 million last year, the number is still far below pre-pandemic levels.

According to WHO, these declines indicate that the number of people with undiagnosed or untreated TB has increased, leading to more deaths and community transmission, and ultimately more people develop the disease.

The number of people being treated for RR-TB and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) also decreased between 2019 and 2020. About 161,746 people started RR-TB treatment in 2021, or just about a third of people. demand.

Global spending on essential TB services also fell, from $6 billion in 2019 to $5.4 billion in 2021, less than half of this year’s global target of $13 billion.

Necessary emergency measures

However, there was some good news amid stalled progress as the report also recorded some small gains.

Worldwide, 26.3 million people were treated for TB between 2018 and 2021, yet again, still far short of the 40 million target set four years ago.

TB prevention for people living with HIV also far exceeds the global target of 6 million, reaching more than 10 million during the same period.

The report highlights the need for countries to take urgent measures to restore access to essential TB services.

It also calls for increased investment and action to address broader determinants of TB epidemics and their socioeconomic impacts, as well as the need for new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines. .

WHO will convene a high-level conference in early 2023 to accelerate vaccine development, building on lessons from the pandemic.

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