WHO says COVID-19 puts global fight against tuberculosis at risk, calls for urgent action

On October 14, WHO called for urgent action and funding to sustain progress in global fight against tuberculosis (TB), warning that due to pandemic global targets for prevention and treatment of TB were “likely missed”. UN health ncy said in a release that while TB cases recorded between 2015 and 2019 dipped by 9 percent and deaths from ailment shrank by14 percent, TB services in 2020 “remains a challenge”. 

Tedros ham Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO said in a press release that accelerated action was required collectively by all nations globally to accomplish targets by 2022. However, he ded, “Equitable access to quality and timely diagsis, prevention, treatment, and care remains a challenge,” citing coronavirus pandemic. respiratory disease Tuberculosis impacts nearly 90 percent of individuals each year live in just across 30 countries of world, and ailment severely impacts lungs of patients. Caused by bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, dely disease spres via air when those infected eir cough or sneeze and is one of leing fatality causes in people with HIV, according to WHO.

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“In 2020, funding for TB prevention, diagsis, treatment, and care reached $6.5 billion, about half of $13 billion targets agreed by world leers in 2018,” organization said. 

1.4 million people succumbed

Tedros said that world should take measures to mitigate impact of COVID-19 on essential TB services, as, in 2019 alone, nearly 1.4 million people succumbed to TB-related illnesses. Furr, organization informed that illness was detected to have impacted an estimated 10 million, of which, 3 million were undiagsed. “ situation is even more acute for people with drug-resistant TB. About 465,000 people were newly diagsed with drug-resistant TB in 2019 and, of se, over 60 percent were t able to access treatment,” WHO informed. Citing funding as a major hurdle in its fight against Tuberculosis, WHO appealed to nations to scale up progress so that treatment can be me accessible to vulnerable.

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