EHS-COVID (511) WHO: Tuberculosis deaths rise (5)

6 January, 2022

Below are the citation and selected extracts of a new perspective paper (5 Januray 2022) in the New England Journal of Medicine

CITATION: Covid-19’s Devastating Effect on Tuberculosis Care — A Path to Recovery

Madhukar Pai, M.D., Ph.D., Tereza Kasaeva, M.D., Ph.D., and Soumya Swaminathan, M.D.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2118145

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The Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on every aspect of global health, but tuberculosis services have been disproportionately affected. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2021, case notifications have plummeted because of pandemic-related disruptions in services. For the first time in more than a decade, tuberculosis mortality has increased...

The WHO (where two of us work) estimates that nearly 10 million people developed tuberculosis in 2020. Only 5.8 million cases were diagnosed and reported, however, which reflects an 18% decrease from 2019. This decrease was concentrated in 16 countries, with Asian countries (especially India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and China) seeing the largest reductions in case reporting. These countries all had major Covid-19 outbreaks and health care service disruptions.

Tuberculosis deaths have increased because of reduced access to care. In 2020, there were roughly 1.5 million tuberculosis deaths worldwide, representing the first year-over-year increase in tuberculosis deaths since 2005 (see figure).2 Other negative pandemic-related effects include a 15% reduction in the number of people treated for drug-resistant tuberculosis, a 21% decrease in people receiving preventive treatment for tuberculosis infection, and a decrease (from $5.8 billion to $5.3 billion) in global tuberculosis spending between 2019 and 2020...

First, ending the Covid-19 pandemic quickly is critical for rebuilding tuberculosis services and other essential health services...

Second, we need to highlight the worsening tuberculosis epidemic...

Third, improving [Tb] case detection is an urgent priority...

We believe world leaders should commit to vaccinating people globally to help end the Covid-19 pandemic. They should also reaffirm their commitment to ending the tuberculosis epidemic, work harder to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, and address the social, environmental, and economic determinants of tuberculosis infection and mortality.

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Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA Coordinator, neil@hifa.org www.hifa.org