JOHANNESBURG, November 8 (IPS) – The news in many parts of the world is that tuberculosis (TB) is reclaiming the title of the world’s deadliest infection, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues estimated kill 1,450 people daily around the world. But this is not news for African countries, where there are one third of people people die from tuberculosis globally, even though they make up less than one-fifth of the world’s population.
And on our continent, the real burden could be even worse: only 60% of the estimated cases have been diagnosed. All other infections are masked by poverty – and so the epidemic continues to spread.
Consider The Story of Zanyiwe, who is recovering from tuberculosis for the fifth time. Her son-in-law died of an illness, and her 18-month-old granddaughter is now suffering from this disease. Tuberculosis has hit her family and community in Cape Town, South Africa – but this story could be set in Nigeria, Kenya, or anywhere, as TB was never seen in Africa .
Four years ago, it was hoped that tuberculosis might get the attention it deserves. The United Nations organized a High-level meeting with heads of state in September 2018, where more than half of the world’s countries convened to campaign in favor of tackling TB. Many commitments have been made; Implementation of these commitments started off slow, and then the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything in order.
The first commitment is to find and treat 40 million people with TB between 2018 and 2022, including 3.5 million children and 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB. We are 19% behind that overall target, but 32% behind in children and 46% behind in drug-resistant TB. We now have new and shorter TB regimens for TB and drug-resistant TB; The use of these new technologies could make next year, when another high-level UN meeting on tuberculosis will be convened, a different story.
The second commitment is to provide preventive treatment to the 30 million people at risk of TB infection. We are behind 48%; While we have already surpassed our sub-target of reaching 6 million people living with HIV on preventive treatment, from 2018-2021 we have provided only 2.2 million TB contacts with preventive treatment. at households, reaching 11.5% of the target. Again, we now have new, more effective and shorter prevention regimens to roll out — but we need outreach capacity and the willingness of countries to get treatment into the hands. those in need.
The third and fourth pledges are about funding. Leaders commit to spending a total of US$13 billion annually on prevention, diagnosis and treatment by 2022; in 2021, only 42% of the annual target has been spent. For TB research, US$2 billion annually has been committed by 2022 but in 2021 research spending will reach less than half of that amount (46%). The deployment of new treatments and the development of even better treatments will require stricter acceptance of these commitments; The status quo simply won’t get us there.
While we have not finished 2022, it is clear that we will not meet these goals. With that said, there are already signs of progress worthy of attention.
First, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Namibia, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Uganda all made progress in detecting more TB cases last year. And the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia have all made progress throughout the pandemic — showing the political will needed to keep their people healthier. Overall, Africa will detect 4% more TB in 2021 than in 2020. That’s a start — and we can do better.
New TB drugs are being supported by the World Health Organization (WHO). Six-month drug-resistant TB therapy has been approved in more than 20 countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. And Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe are working to develop a new TB treatment.
In Africa, we would not mistake these early signs of progress for anything more important. At the same time, however, it is still progress that should be respected and built upon. Next year, the world will examine their long-forgotten commitments. We need to show the world that it’s time to move on; all that was missing was the same thing that had been missing for so many years: political will.
Morounfolu (Folu) Olugbosi, MD is Senior Director, Clinical Development, Tuberculosis Alliance. He works with the clinical development of products in the TB Alliance catalog and helps oversee clinical trials in TB endemic countries and heads the South Africa office.
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
