The World Health Organisation (WHO), in a new report on tuberculosis, said that approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023, saying it is the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995.
This represents a notable increase from 7.5 million reported in 2022, placing TB again as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing COVID-19.
According to the WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2024, although the number of TB-related deaths decreased from 1.32 million in 2022 to 1.25 million in 2023, the total number of people falling ill with TB rose slightly to an estimated 10.8 million in 2023.
With the disease disproportionately affecting people in 30 high-burden countries, India (26%), Indonesia (10%), China (6.8%), the Philippines (6.8%), and Pakistan (6.3%) together accounted for 56% of the global TB burden.
According to the report, 55% of people who developed TB were men, 33% were women, and 12% were children and young adolescents.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a remark, said the fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage when the tools to prevent it, detect it, and treat it are available.
Dr Tedros added, “WHO urges all countries to make good on the concrete commitments they have made to expand the use of those tools and to end TB.”
The report said that in 2023, the gap between the estimated number of new TB cases and those reported narrowed to about 2.7 million, down from COVID-19 pandemic levels of around 4 million in 2020 and 2021.
It added that multidrug-resistant TB remains a public health crisis, saying treatment success rates for multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant TB (MDR/RR-TB) have now reached 68%.
But, of the 400 000 people estimated to have developed MDR/RR-TB, only 44% were diagnosed and treated in 2023.
On the funding gap, the report said that global funding for TB prevention and care decreased further in 2023 and remains far below target, further impeding the development of new TB diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines.
Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which bear 98% of the TB burden, faced significant funding shortages. Only US$ 5.7 billion of the US$ 22 billion annual funding target was available in 2023, equivalent to only 26% of the global target.
The total amount of international donor funding in LMICs has remained at around US$ 1.1–1.2 billion per year for several years.
The report emphasised that sustained financial investment is crucial for the success of TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment efforts.
For the first time, the report provides estimates on the percentage of TB-affected households that face catastrophic costs (exceeding 20% of annual household income) to access TB diagnosis and treatment in all LMICs. These indicate that half of TB-affected households face such catastrophic costs.
On major risk factors for new TB cases, the report said new cases are driven by 5 major risk factors: undernutrition, HIV infection, alcohol use disorders, smoking (especially among men), and diabetes.
It added that tackling these issues, along with critical determinants like poverty and GDP per capita, requires coordinated multisectoral action.
WHO said that global milestones and targets for reducing the TB disease burden are off-track, and considerable progress is needed to reach other targets set for 2027 ahead of the second UN High-Level Meeting.
However, WHO therefore called on governments, global partners, and donors to urgently translate the commitments made during the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB into tangible actions, saying increased funding for research, particularly for new TB vaccines, is essential to accelerate progress and achieve the global targets set for 2027.
ALSO READ THESE TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Biden thanks Tinubu for release of Binance executive, Gambaryan
