Tuberculosis (TB), the old enemy of humanity, has once again earned the title of the deadliest infectious disease. President of the nonprofit TB Alliance, Dr. Mel Spigelman said in a conversation with AFP that the fight to beat TB has slowed significantly over the past few years as the world is preoccupied with COVID-19.
“Honestly, we’ve reversed our fast track on tuberculosis,” Spigelman said. “There has been a huge setback.”
Spigelman further stated, “I am very concerned that the progress that has already been eroded by COVID may be eroded even further.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 1.5 million people die from TB each year. About half of all TB cases are in eight countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and South Africa.
For comparison, as of October 24, 2022, COVID-19 has killed more than 6.5 million people in less than three years, according to the Johns Hopkins University board. Now, with the death rate of COVID-19 falling to approximately 1,449 deaths every day, tuberculosis, which causes more than 4,000 deaths every day, is once again considered the largest infectious cause of death.
In 2020, about 80 percent of TB programs reported interruptions in services. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected laboratory testing, treatments and reporting services. Similar problems have been reported in malaria and HIV prevention programs. It’s unclear how this slowdown will translate into the number of fatal TB cases, but it certainly won’t help the situation.
What is tuberculosis (TB)?
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease spread by bacteria that typically affects the lungs, although it can also affect other parts of the body. Tuberculosis, also known as thin disease or tuberculosis, typically results in a prolonged cough, chest pain, fever, chills, night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss and fatigue.
Despite the high mortality rate, the disease is perfectly preventable, typically with a course of four antibiotics for 6 months. But drug-resistant tuberculosis is also becoming a growing problem. About five percent of TB cases each year are believed to be resistant to commonly prescribed antibiotics.
Worse still, there is a real lack of improvement in TB treatment. Spigelman attributes one of the main reasons for this recession to the belief that tuberculosis is the “disease of the poor” that heavily affects the Southern Hemisphere: “I think we would see a very different response if rich people around the world were caught in it.”
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