According to the new WHO annual report, 10 million cases and 1.5 million deaths related to tuberculosis were recorded in 2018 worldwide. A downward trend compared to previous years, but which hides large disparities between rich countries and developing countries.
A priori, this could be perceived as good news. According to the new annual report of the World Health Organization (WHO) unveiled Thursday, October 17, the global fight against tuberculosis is progressing.
In 2018, around the world, 10 million people would have contracted tuberculosis, i.e. 5.7 million adult men, 3.2 million adult women and one million children. The number of deaths for that same year is estimated at 1.5 million, 100,000 less than in 2017.
On closer inspection, however, tuberculosis remains an infectious disease that today kills more than HIV (770,000 deaths in 2018), which makes the WHO fear that the objectives set by the international community to eradicate epidemic are decidedly too ambitious. The latter had aimed for the end of the epidemic by 2030, with intermediate targets in 2020: a reduction in the number of cases by 20% and mortality by 35% by next year. Objectives far from being achieved, according to this latest report. “The world is not on the right trajectory”, recognizes the WHO.
Strong disparities in the world
The new WHO report also points to the persistence of strong regional disparities. While some countries, such as India, have set even more ambitious targets than those of the UN to eradicate the epidemic by 2025, it still concentrates 27% of cases of tuberculosis resistant to anti-tuberculosis drugs, ahead of China ( 14%) and Russia (9%).
Tuberculosis remains present today in the least favored regions of the world: 44% of the cases recorded in 2018 are found in Southeast Asia, 24% in Africa and 18% in the Eastern Pacific. In total, eight countries alone account for two-thirds of new cases: India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa.
The report notes, however, the notable efforts put in place by certain African countries such as Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, which have thus seen the prevalence of the disease decrease by 12% and its mortality by 16% over the last three years.
A lack of resources for screening, treatment and prevention
For the WHO, one of the urgent matters now consists in better diagnosing patients since worldwide, one new case in 3 is not detected and only 7 out of 10 patients receive treatment.
The other priority is prevention: for example, treatment should be provided to people infected with Mycobacerium Tuberculosisthe bacteria responsible for tuberculosis, before the disease develops.
The fact remains, however, that tuberculosis is no longer the priority of the public health policies of the various countries. According to the WHO, there is currently a lack of 3.3 billion dollars needed to carry out effective prevention, diagnosis and treatment policies and 1.2 billion dollars for research.