According to the World Health Organization's annual report, 10.6 million people fell ill in 2021 with tuberculosis - caused by a bacterium that mainly attacks the lungs - an increase of 4.5% in one year. year.

Similarly, the incidence rate of the disease (new cases per 100,000 population per year) increased by 3.6% between 2020 and 2021, after declining by around 2% per year for most of the past two decades. .

At the regional level, the incidence rate of tuberculosis has increased between 2020 and 2021 everywhere in the world, except in Africa where the disruptions in health services linked to the Covid-19 pandemic have had only a small impact. on the number of people diagnosed.

Tuberculosis deaths around the world Jean-Michel CORNU AFP

Globally, the estimated annual number of TB deaths decreased between 2005 and 2019, but estimates for 2020 and 2021 suggest this trend has reversed.

The WHO estimates the number of deaths last year at 1.6 million, a return to 2017 levels. This represents an increase of more than 14% compared to 2019, when this contagious disease killed 1.4 million people (1.5 million in 2020).

Most of the estimated increase in deaths was recorded last year in four countries: India, Indonesia, Burma and the Philippines.

The prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis has also increased - by 3% between 2020 and 2021 - with 450,000 new cases of rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis in 2021.

Poverty and malnutrition

According to the WHO, "this is the first time in many years that an increase in the number of people falling ill with tuberculosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis has been reported".

The Covid pandemic has greatly slowed progress in the fight against tuberculosis.

The revival of tuberculosis is in fact jeopardizing the strategy put in place by the WHO, which aims to reduce deaths due to the disease by 90% and the incidence rate of tuberculosis by 80% by 2030, compared to 2015.

The Covid pandemic has severely slowed progress in the fight against tuberculosis Punishes PARANJPE AFP/Archives

However, the organization does not lose hope, even if it estimates that tuberculosis should have continued to increase in 2022.

"If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that with solidarity, determination, innovation and the fair use of tools, we can overcome serious health threats. Let's apply these lessons to tuberculosis," notes WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the report.

"It's time to end this long-killing disease. By working together, we can end TB," he said.

WHO stresses that the need for action has become even more pressing in the context of the war in Ukraine, ongoing conflicts in other parts of the world, the global energy crisis and associated risks to food security, as these "are likely to further aggravate some of the broad determinants of TB, such as income levels and malnutrition".

In 2019, tuberculosis was the 13th leading cause of death worldwide and the first due to an infectious disease.

Since 2020, it has become the second due to an infectious disease, behind Covid-19 and before AIDS, the report says.

Most of the people who developed TB last year were in Southeast Asia (45%), Africa (23%) and the Western Pacific region (18%).

Eight countries account for more than two-thirds of the cases worldwide: India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

© 2022 AFP