MELBOURNE, 2 November 2024: Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by infection with the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB most commonly affects a person’s lungs, but can also affect other parts of the body and can cause serious illness. TB can be cured with specific antibiotics, says NSW Health. It is curable and preventable. It spreads from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says, in a recent report, the fight against TB globally has been mixed and is off-track. In fact, it has not been eradicated, says the WHO, when it started monitoring TB across the world.
While 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.
Global funding for TB prevention and care decreased further in 2023 and remains far below target. 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 WHO report says, ” A significant number of new TB cases are driven by 5 major risk factors: undernutrition, HIV infection, alcohol use disorders, smoking (especially among men), and diabetes. Tackling these issues, along with critical determinants like poverty and GDP per capita, requires coordinated multisectoral action.”
“We are confronted with a multitude of formidable challenges: funding shortfalls and catastrophic financial burden on those affected, climate change, conflict, migration and displacement, pandemics, and drug-resistant tuberculosis, a significant driver of antimicrobial resistance,” said Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Programme. “It is imperative that we unite across all sectors and stakeholders, to confront these pressing issues and ramp up our efforts.”
GLOBAL TUBERCULOSIS REPORT 2024
Source- Material for the above report has been extracted from the Global Tuberculosis Report 2024 and its media release, courtesy WHO.
