WHO reports first rise in TB cases in 20 years
Tuberculosis case numbers increased last year for the first time in more than 20 years, fuelled by the Covid-19 pandemic which disrupted access to diagnosis and treatment, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Thursday. TB has rebounded after years of decline, killing an estimated 1.6 million people in 2021 – up 14 percent in two years. Overtaken by Covid-19 during the worst of the pandemic as the world's biggest infectious killer, TB claimed an estimated 1.5 million lives in 2020 and 1.4 million in 2019. Tereza Kasaeva, the director of the UN health agency's global TB programme, said it was now a "pivotal moment" in the fight against the disease. "For the first time in nearly two decades, WHO is reporting an increase in the number of people falling ill with TB and the drug-resistant tuberculosis, alongside an increase in TB related deaths," she said. An estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2021 – a 4.5 percent increase on 2020, the WHO said in its annual Global TB report. Most people who developed TB last year were in southeast Asia (45 percent), Africa (23 percent) and the Western Pacific region (18 percent). The WHO blamed the resurgence of the disease on Covid. "The overarching finding of this report is that the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a damaging impact on access to TB diagnosis and treatment and the burden of TB disease," the WHO said. "Progress made in the years up to 2019 has slowed, stalled or reversed, and global TB targets are off track. "Intensified efforts backed by increased funding are urgently required to mitigate and reverse the negative impacts of the pandemic on TB." (AFP)