Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 25th March. World health agency on Friday said that the number of people dying from tuberculosis (TB) rose last year due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts and other crises, first time in decade
WHO marks the World Tuberculosis Day, announced that it will expand the scope of a five-year-old initiative in efforts to eradicate one of the world’s top infectious killers by 2030.
TB affects the lungs, but it is preventable, treatable and curable. The deaths have dropped by 40 per cent globally since the year 2000, 1.6 million people die from the disease annually, and millions more are affected, WHO said
WHO Director-General’s Flagship Initiative on TB was established in 2018 to advance research and increase access to services, in support of efforts to end the global epidemic. It will be expanded and extended through 2027, the agency noted.
The aim is to scale up delivery of quality care to people living with TB through equitable access to rapid diagnostics and shorter all-oral treatment.
WHO highlighted the pressing need for investment, particularly in new vaccine development, and has proposed the establishment of a TB Vaccine Acceleration Council.
The sole vaccine available is more than a century old, it does not adequately protect young people and adults, who account for most TB transmissions, the agency said.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “We need to make the tools we have available to more people. But we also need new tools,”.
“Increasing drug resistance is undermining the effectiveness of some medicines that are used to treat TB,” he added.
The flagship initiative will speed up action and accountability to tackle the key drivers of the TB epidemic, such as poverty, undernourishment, diabetes, HIV, tobacco and alcohol use, and poor living and working conditions.
WHO and partners have issued a call to action for governments to accelerate the rollout of new oral treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB, which continues to be a pressing health concern.
UN General Assembly will convene a High-Level Meeting on TB in September, which Tedros said “should be a turning point in the fight against TB, if leaders make real and lasting commitments to invest in the response to TB.”
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