/picture alliance, BSIP, NIH-NIAID, IMAGE POINT FR
Geneva – According to the World Health Organization (WHO), fewer people died from tuberculosis (TB) worldwide last year than in the previous year. The number of people who became newly ill rose only slightly.
That is encouraging, but the global community’s goals of largely ending the tuberculosis epidemic worldwide by 2030 will not be achieved. TB will most likely have been the most common cause of death from infectious diseases again in 2023, according to the WHO. In the meantime, that was COVID-19.
“The important message of the report: If we act consistently, we can end TB,” said Peter Sands, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. But more money is needed for testing and treatment programs.
The goal was to reduce deaths by 75 percent from 2015 to 2025. By 2023, the decline was only 23 percent. The frequency – how many people out of 100,000 become newly ill – should fall by 50 percent by 2025.
In 2023, however, the value was only 8.3 percent. The best values were achieved by the European region with minus 27 percent and Africa with minus 24 percent. Ukraine is one of the most polluted countries in Europe.
A total of 10.8 million people worldwide became ill with tuberculosis in 2023, after 10.7 million in the previous year. Five countries accounted for more than half of the cases (56 percent): India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Pakistan. The number of deaths worldwide fell from 1.32 to 1.25 million.
Significant progress has been made in tuberculosis treatment in recent years. New medications ensure that therapy only lasts six months instead of the previous three years. However, this is still too expensive for many regions.
There is also often a lack of laboratories for diagnosis and treatment in affected regions. In Eastern Europe in particular, there is a worrying increase in tuberculosis due to poverty and deficiencies in the healthcare system, especially with multi-resistant pathogen strains.
Sands called on the global community to take decisive action now and provide sufficient funding in the fight against TB, given recent progress and significant price reductions in some key instruments. “Above all, we must address the deep-rooted social inequalities that make people more vulnerable to the disease and make it difficult for them to access treatment.” © dpa/kna/aerzteblatt.de
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