Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially deadly infectious disease, that spreads through the air and affects the lungs. It became a major killer after HIV arrived, and began suppressing immune systems. It was the leading fatal infectious disease in the world, attracting large resources to fight it by 2020. And then Tuberculosis stepped aside for COVID and fell away from the spotlight.
Tuberculosis Statistics After It Stepped Aside for COVID
ABC News reports there were around 11 million TB cases and 1.5 million deaths in 2019. Reported rates had increased sharply from 2017, but there was a substantial fall-off in 2020. However, health officials suggest this was a reflection of less medical attention, as opposed to an improving situation.
The media house reports ‘resources were stripped from the global TB fight to deal with the pandemic at hand’. Moreover they say this could result in a surge of lost opportunities for diagnosis and treatment. However, behind the scenes TB still has the greatest impact of all infectious diseases in many countries in the world.
But Global Resources Are Still Redirected to COVID-19
We’ve made great progress with controlling the coronavirus as a world community. Yet despite this success Tuberculosis is still stepped aside for COVID priorities. Professor Justin Denholm is medical director of the Victorian Tuberculosis Program at Melbourne Health, and he does not mince his words.
“The diagnostic tests that we use for TB transformed across COVID,” he told ABC News. “All that adds up into the fact that around the world there were nearly 20 per cent less people with Tuberculosis diagnosis last year than there were before.
“But that’s not because they didn’t get TB. We need to both restore those programs and make up for all the additional people affected by TB in the meantime.” Especially we might add, as we don’t have a powerful vaccine to prevent infection and severe symptoms.
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