Look for Drugs and Conditions

Global TB Deaths in 2020

Need to remove driving conditions to end TB: Dr Tedros

The Global Community must work in tandem to remove the conditions that drive tuberculosis (TB), including poverty, malnutrition, diabetes, HIV, tobacco and alcohol use, poor living and working conditions, stigma and discrimination, the Director General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Speaking to Media in Geneva recently, the WHO Director-General said, “It is also clear that we cannot truly end TB unless we address its drivers and more.

Pointing out that despite the discovery of TB-causing bacteria 141 years ago by Dr Robert Koch and the development of the BCG vaccine a century ago, the chief of the UN Health Agency said the disease continues to kill millions each year, including 1.6 million deaths reported in 2021.

However, admitting that in the past two decades, the deaths from TB have dropped by nearly 40% globally, and more than 74 million people have received access to TB services, he added.

Reiterating that the COVID pandemic and conflicts in many countries have severely disrupted services to prevent, detect and treat TB, the UN Health Official said that in 2021, WHO reported an increase in TB deaths for the first time in more than a decade.

Dr Tedros emphasised that the goal of eradicating tuberculosis by 2030 is extremely ambitious, and that world leaders will meet in New York in September 2023 for the second High-Level Meeting on TB.

“We believe that meeting should be a turning point in the fight against TB if leaders make real and lasting commitments to invest in the response to TB,” he added.

Dr Tedros explained that to support the goal of eliminating tuberculosis by 2030, “We established the WHO Flagship Initiative on TB five years ago to advance research and to increase access to TB services.”

Stressing that along with making the available to more people, there is a need to develop new tools also, WHO DG said, “Increasing drug resistance is undermining the effectiveness of some medicines that are used to treat TB.”

“Only TB vaccine developed to date, the BCG vaccine, is more than 100 years old and does not adequately protect adolescents and adults, who account for most TB transmission,” he added.

“That is why WHO has proposed establishing a TB Vaccine Acceleration Council to facilitate the development, licensing and use of new TB vaccines,” he further added.

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Addressing the media, ’s Assistant Director-General ad interim for Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases at WHO, Dr Tereza Kasaeva, said that the Agency has been providing support to more than 100 countries, including 49 countries with high TB burden, under the WHO Flagship Initiative, and it has recommended two new anti-TB drugs and 12 new diagnostic tests.

“WHO developed new TB guidelines recommending for the first time fully oral and 2-3 times shorter more effective treatment, including for the most severe form of drug-resistant TB (DRTB),” she said.

Pointing out that 109 countries are using WHO-recommended all oral new treatment regimes of multidrug-resistant TB, Dr Kasaeva said, “For the upcoming period of 2027, the initiative will feature new ambitious target and focus on enabling universal access to quality WHO recommendation on TB prevention and care.”

“WHO and partners launched a call to action and urging governments and other key stakeholders to accelerate the new 6-month oral treatment regimen for DRTB,” she informed.

 Speaking from Bangkok, Jeff Acaba, a TB survivor from the Philippines, and a member of WHO’s civil society task force, who has been living with HIV for nine years,  informed that he is currently enrolled on TB preventive therapy he said that the programme underlines the importance of shorter drug regimen for DRTB.

“For too long, people with DRTB have struggled with longer regimens, painful injections, side effects and catastrophic out-of-pocket expenses.”

He called upon the governments of all countries, including those with high DRTB burden to roll out the new regimen at the earliest.



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