By Dr Deepu
A new study by researchers suggests that “increased investment in evidence-based interventions
to diagnose, treat, and prevent tuberculosis (TB), especially in high-burden
countries, could help end TB” by the year 2045. These interventions should not
only “be scaled up, but greater investment and research is needed to develop
new methods of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention around the world,
[researchers] reported.” Additionally, they suggest that “responsibility for
investing in TB programs should be shared between domestic allocation in these
countries, as well as external funding through increased developmental assistance.”
The authors mentioned that”to reach these goals, global
investment in TB research and development will need to increase to at least $2
billion per year during the next 4 years”.
With the goals of treating 40 million people and preventing
30 million new cases from 2018-2022, the United Nations held its first-ever
"high-level meeting" about TB,in September 2018
A TB-free world is possible by 2045 if "increased
political will and financial resources" are targeted towards areas where
they are needed most, as stated in the report
In India, the country
with the highest burden of TB, "unavoidable tuberculosis deaths"
will cost the country at least $32 billion each year over the next 30 years,
even with "optimal implementation of existing tools." The authors also
have mentioned that the savings from averting a TB death can be three times the
costs in certain countries.
Tuberculosis was declared a global emergency by WHO in 1993.
Then, about a third of the world’s population was infected with the bacteria
that cause tuberculosis, and the disease was responsible for an estimated 3
million deaths each year. Today, around a quarter of the world’s population has
a tuberculosis infection, which causes about 1·6 million annual deaths, making
it the leading infectious killer of our time. Although progress has been made
in reducing the global burden of tuberculosis in the past 25 years, it has
occurred at a frustratingly slow rate. Declines in tuberculosis mortality are
not keeping pace with reductions in deaths from other infectious diseases of
global importance such as HIV and malaria, and the world is not on track to
meet targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals and the WHO End TB
Strategy.
The findings were published in The Lancet.
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