Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of WHO, said, “We ask countries to do more to stop TB. We need better tools to find, prevent, and treat it so we can get rid of TB forever.”
Even though there were a few fewer deaths from TB in 2022, with 1.32 million people, the sickness is still spreading fast in places where many people are underfed, have diabetes, smoke, or have HIV. In 2023, 56% of the world’s TB cases were in countries like Pakistan that have a lot of TB.
A big problem is the rise of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). This kind of TB doesn’t get better with regular medicine, making it harder to treat. In 2023, only 44% of the people with MDR-TB were diagnosed and treated, and only 68% of them were successfully treated. This shows how tough it is to manage this type of TB.
There isn’t enough money to fight TB. In 2023, countries that are not very rich needed $22 billion for TB care but only got $5.7 billion, which is just 26% of what they needed. Many families with TB also pay over 20% of their yearly income just for treatment.
Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, who leads WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Programme, said we need to work together quickly. She mentioned that “not enough money, financial problems, conflicts, climate change, and drug resistance are making it hard to beat TB.”
The WHO is also focusing on finding a vaccine for TB because only 20% of the $5 billion goal for TB research was met in 2022. The WHO’s TB Vaccine Accelerator Council is working hard to move this forward.
WHO is asking governments and partners to take action on promises made at the 2023 UN meeting about TB. They want everyone to turn those promises into real plans to fight TB.
Dr. Ghebreyesus said we need to act quickly and work together to meet the goals of reducing TB and make sure everyone who is affected can get the care they need.
