WHO Report reveals recovery in TB services but warns of funding shortfalls

SWITZERLAND—The World Health Organization (WHO) has released the 2023 Global Tuberculosis (TB) report, which highlights a major global recovery in the scale-up of TB testing and treatment services in 2022.

The report details came forth during a launch ceremony attended by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, and Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Programme, among others.

The report reveals an optimistic tendency toward reversing the negative effects of COVID-19 disruptions on TB services.

The analysis includes data from 192 countries and territories and estimates that 7.5 million individuals will be diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2022, the highest figure since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995.

According to the WHO, the increase is due to improved access to and supply of health care in many countries.

India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, which together accounted for more than 60% of global reductions in the number of individuals newly diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2020 and 2021, all rebounded to levels above 2019 in 2022.

 Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, stated that TB will be eradicated given current knowledge and political commitment.

He compared it to his forefathers, who suffered and died from tuberculosis without knowing what it was, what caused it, or how to stop it.

Globally, a projected 10.6 million people will contract tuberculosis (TB) in 2022, up from 10.3 million in 2021.

Geographically, the majority of individuals who contracted tuberculosis (TB) in 2022 lived in the WHO Regions of Southeast Asia (46%), Africa (23%), and the Western Pacific (18%), with lesser amounts in the Eastern Mediterranean (8.1%), the Americas (3.1%), and Europe (2.2%).

In 2022, the total number of TB-related deaths (including those among HIV-positive people) was 1.3 million, down from 1.4 million in 2021.

However, COVID-19 interruptions resulted in almost 500,000 extra TB deaths between 2020 and 2022. TB is the top cause of death among HIV-positive patients.

There has been some progress in developing novel TB diagnostics, treatments, and vaccinations. This, however, is limited by the general level of expenditure in these sectors.

According to the WHO, global efforts to battle tuberculosis have saved approximately 75 million lives since the year 2000.

However, additional efforts are required because tuberculosis will remain the world’s second-greatest infectious killer in 2022.

Despite a strong recovery in 2022, progress was insufficient to reach global TB targets set in 2018, with pandemic interruptions and ongoing conflicts being major contributors.

The 2023 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (TB) reiterated the 2018 pledges and targets while establishing new targets for the period 2023-2027.

Dr Kasaeva, for her part, emphasized that world leaders made strong promises with concrete targets in the political declaration of the second UN High-Level Meeting on TB, providing a significant push to expedite the TB response.

She emphasized that the report contains vital data and information on the status of the TB epidemic, as well as an evaluation of progress, which will help governments translate these aims and promises into action. This, in turn, will put an end to tuberculosis as we know it.

The new targets include reaching 90% of people in need of TB preventive and care services and adopting a WHO-recommended rapid test as the first method of diagnosis.

This will provide a health and social benefits package to all persons with tuberculosis, ensure the availability of at least one new safe and effective TB vaccine, and close financing shortfalls for TB implementation and research by 2027.

The report also emphasizes the significance of coordinated action across health and other sectors to address the social, environmental, and economic drivers of tuberculosis, as well as the repercussions of inaction.

Through its Multisectoral Accountability Framework, WHO continues to encourage additional sectors to participate in the TB response.

Outside of the health sector, education was the most involved in TB advocacy and information-sharing in 2022, followed by the defense and justice sectors for TB prevention and care services, and the social development sector for patient support, including the provision of economic, social, and nutritional benefits.

The report highlights that eliminating the worldwide TB pandemic involves translating the commitments made at the UN High-Level Meeting on TB in 2023 into meaningful action, altering people’s lives and livelihoods.

 

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