WHO says COVID-19 puts global fight against tuberculosis at risk, calls for urgent action

On October 14, the WHO called for urgent action and funding to sustain progress in the global fight against tuberculosis (TB), warning that due to the pandemic the global targets for prevention and treatment of TB were “likely missed”. UN health agency said in a release that while the TB cases recorded between 2015 and 2019 dipped by 9 percent and deaths from the ailment shrank by14 percent, TB services in 2020 “remains a challenge”. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO said in a press release that accelerated action was required collectively by all nations globally to accomplish the targets by 2022. However, he added, “Equitable access to quality and timely diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and care remains a challenge,” citing the coronavirus pandemic. The respiratory disease Tuberculosis impacts nearly 90 percent of individuals each year live in just across 30 countries of the world, and the ailment severely impacts the lungs of the patients. Caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the deadly disease spreads via air when those infected either cough or sneeze and is one of the leading fatality causes in people with HIV, according to WHO.

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“In 2020, funding for TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care reached $6.5 billion, about half of the $13 billion targets agreed by world leaders in 2018,” the organization said. 

1.4 million people succumbed

Tedros said that the world should take measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on essential TB services, as, in 2019 alone, nearly 1.4 million people succumbed to TB-related illnesses. Further, the organization informed that the illness was detected to have impacted an estimated 10 million, of which, 3 million were undiagnosed. “The situation is even more acute for people with drug-resistant TB. About 465,000 people were newly diagnosed with drug-resistant TB in 2019 and, of these, over 60 percent were not able to access treatment,” WHO informed. Citing the funding as a major hurdle in its fight against Tuberculosis, WHO appealed to the nations to scale up the progress so that the treatment can be made accessible to the vulnerable.

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