GENEVA, Oct 14, 2021 (BSS/AFP) - Tuberculosis is on the rise again 
globally for the first time in a decade, linked to disruptions in access to 
healthcare because of the Covid pandemic, the World Health Orgnization said 
Thursday.

   The setback has erased years of progress toward tackling the curable 
disease, which affects millions of people worldwide.

   "This is alarming news that must serve as a global wake-up call to the 
urgent need for investments and innovation to close the gaps in diagnosis, 
treatment and care for the millions of people affected by this ancient but 
preventable and treatable disease," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 
in a statement.

   In its annual TB report for 2020, the WHO said progress toward eradicating 
the disease has been made worse thanks to a growing number of cases going 
undiagnosed and untreated.

   The organisation estimates that around 4.1 million people have 
tuberculosis but have not been diagnosed or officially declared, up sharply 
from 2.9 million in 2019.

   The Covid-19 pandemic has made the situation worse for people with 
tuberculosis, as health funds have been redirected toward tackling 
coronavirus and people have struggled to access care because of lockdowns.

   There was also a drop in the number of people seeking preventative 
treatment, it added, from 2.8 million people in 2020, down 21 percent from 
2019.

   "This report confirms our fears that the disruption of essential health 
services due to the pandemic could start to unravel years of progress against 
tuberculosis," Tedros said.

   Some 1.5 million people died from TB in 2020, including 214,000 among HIV 
positive people, according to the report.

   That was up from 1.2 million in 2019, 209,000 of them HIV positive.

   The increase in the number of TB deaths occurred mainly in the 30 
countries with the highest burden of tuberculosis, it added.

   - Deaths could rise -

   Tuberculosis is the second deadliest infectious disease after Covid-19, 
caused by a bacteria that most often affects the lungs.

   Like Covid, it is transmitted by air by infected people, for example by 
coughing.

   Most TB cases occur in just 30 countries, many of them poorer nations in 
Africa and Asia, and more than half of all new cases are in adult men. Women 
account for 33 percent of cases and children 11 percent.

   The WHO's aim is to reduce deaths from TB by 90 percent, and the incidence 
rate by 80 percent by 2030 compared to 2015, but the latest figures threaten 
to jeopardise the strategy, it said.

   And its modelling suggest the number of people developing the disease and 
dying from it could be "much higher in 2021 and 2022".

   The report said that the number of people newly diagnosed and cases 
reported to national authorities fell from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million 
in 2020.

   India, Indonesia, the Philippines and China were the main countries that 
saw a drop in reported cases.

   These and 12 other countries accounted for 93 percent of the total global 
decrease in notifications.

   Global spending on tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment and prevention 
services fell from $5.8 billion in 2019 to $5.3 billion a year later, the 
report found. The 2020 figure was less than half of the global funding target 
for the disease.

   About 85 percent of people who develop TB disease can be successfully 
treated within six months with the right drugs, which also helps to prevent 
transmission of the illness.