WHO says Southeast Asia needs $3 billion annually to fight tuberculosis

After Covid 19, tuberculosis is the second-most infectious killer in the world, claiming 4,100 lives daily. The theme this year is to invest to eradicate tuberculosis and save lives, which is especially critical in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflicts in Eastern Europe, African region and the Middle East that have put progress at risk, the WHO said.

In 2020 tuberculosis caused an estimated 1.5 million deaths globally, up from 1.4 million in 2019. In the Southeast Asia region, estimated tuberculosis and TB-HIV mortality increased by nearly 10 per cent in 2020—over 700,000 lives lost—a trend that is likely to continue, if not worsen, unless urgent action is taken, according to Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, WHO Southeast Asia. In 2020 India launched a “Jan Andolan”, or people’s movement, against tuberculosis. “We need to intensify community engagement in planning, monitoring and implementing national tuberculosis programmes, ensuring that tuberculosis services are close to where people live and work and sensitive to their needs,” Singh said.

The Stop TB Partnership has also called for an urgent and substantial increase of funding to fight tuberculosis in order to meet the goal of eradicating the disease by 2030. The year 2022 is critical for the global fight against the disease. “All projections show that the world is not on course to meet the 2018 United Nations high-level meeting’s TB targets set for 2022,” said Dr Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the partnership, at a virtual press conference. “TB is an infectious and deadly airborne disease with drug-resistant variants. Each untreated TB infection can lead to 15 more infections per year,” Dr Ditiu added.

A report by HaystackAnalytics, a health startup initially funded by the Department of Science and Technology and the Centre’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, indicates that the country continues to bear the largest share of tuberculosis cases in the world, with 65 per cent of the cases being reported in the most economically productive population segment of 15-45 years of age. In 2020 a total of 18.12 lakh tuberculosis cases were notified, which was 25 per cent less than the total 24 lakh cases recorded in 2019.

Lack of access to tuberculosis services and limitations in resources affect reporting of infections.“There is a need to ensure accurate and timely diagnosis of TB,” Dr Anirvan Chatterjee, CEO of HaystackAnalytics, said. Genomics is changing the face of healthcare in therapy areas, and whole genome sequencing has given breakthrough solutions in identifying right pathogens and timely diagnosis of the disease, he added.