Twelve months of Covid-19 reversed 12 years of global progression against tuberculosis, worse than previously estimated.
The pandemic has led to a 25% decline in diagnosis and treatment worldwide, according to research published Thursday by a coalition working to end TB.
Because of the impact of the Covid pandemic on services, the number of people diagnosed and treated for TB in the worst-affected countries has dropped back to the 2008 level, said Lucica Ditiu, executive director of Stop TB Partnership, . In a model study published last year, a setback of five to eight years is estimated.
“Twelve years of impressive gains in the fight against TB – including the reduction in the number of people not missing TB treatment – have been tragically reversed by another virulent respiratory infection,” Ditiu said.
“I hope that in 2021 we will smartly address TB and Covid-19 at the same time as two airborne diseases with similar symptoms.”
The effect on countries depends on their existing disease burden. Data from India and South Africa have shown that people infected with both TBs and Covid-19 are three times more likely to die than those infected with TB alone, which means that preventative measures such as contact detection and testing are essential to keep rates low.
“After less than a year, a vaccine has been developed and is now being used to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, and hopefully end it,” said Thokozile Phiri Nkhoma, a board member of Stop TB Partnership.
‘Although TB has been around since the time of the pharaohs, the only approved vaccine is 100 years old and does not work at all, especially in adults. First-line treatment for TB is several decades old, and drug resistance is increasing, while the millions of people with TB who are not found and treated are at risk of spreading the disease. ”
Every year, TB infects 10 million people and kills 1.5 million, more than any other infectious disease. Although Covid-19 surpassed TB in 2020 as the leading cause of death from a contagious disease, TB still kills more people than Covid in low- and middle-income countries.
Some countries fought hard to reverse the setbacks. After a 70% drop in TB notifications in the first four months of 2020, the Indian Ministry of Health has integrated TB outreach into Covid-19 programming.
“TB got nowhere when the Covid-19 pandemic took place,” said India’s health minister Harsh Vardhan. ‘People were just distracted, health workers were diverted and health systems were overwhelmed.
“Recovery efforts succeed with political leadership and large resources, coupled with the insistence that Covid-19 outreach and prevention efforts include TB work, instead of replacing it.”
Last week, the US government approved $ 3.5 billion (£ 2.5 billion) in emergency funding for low- and middle-income countries to fight Covid-19 and the impact of the pandemic on efforts to combat TB, malaria and HIV. To reduce. has been severely affected by resources being diverted.
Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund, said that while it feels like there may be light at the end of the tunnel as far as Covid is concerned, ‘for the communities we are talking about here, those who are most at risk of getting TB is right at the darkest point ”.