- Tweeter
republish
It's a meeting every year: the World Health Organization (WHO) publishes its report on tuberculosis, the most deadly infectious disease in the world. In 2018, 1.5 million people died while the disease infected another 10 million. These figures are down, but it is still very inadequate.
Every two minutes, five people die of tuberculosis worldwide. In total, last year, 1.5 million patients died because of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, the bacillus responsible for the infection. A quarter of the human population is infected, and therefore at risk of actually developing tuberculosis. This epidemic is slowing down, admittedly, but not enough according to the WHO: it still contaminated 10 million people in 2018.
The goals set by the international community are ambitious. For the first time, on September 26, 2018, the United Nations organized a general assembly on the subject. The commitment was then made to end the disease by 2030, with several steps by then. The first is set for 2020, and as the World Health Organization writes in its report: " The world is not on the right track. "
In concrete terms, the number of cases between 2015 and 2018 decreased by 6.3%. This figure should reach 20% by next year; we are far from it. The same dynamics concerning mortality: it has decreased by 11% over the last three years, it will be necessary to reach 35% in 2020. However, these global trends mask large regional disparities. Eight countries alone (India, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh and South Africa) alone account for two-thirds of new cases.
Towards a better screening
One of the difficulties encountered is to better track the patients. WHO estimates that 1 in 3 new cases are not correctly detected and are therefore not being treated. Moreover, even after a positive diagnosis, not everyone is followed afterwards. Globally, only 7 out of 10 patients receive medication. This is all the more damaging as the treatments used against tuberculosis are effective. When the disease is properly managed, it is defeated in 85% of cases. It is estimated that 58 million lives have been saved since 2000 thanks to these treatments.
But here, some cases of tuberculosis no longer respond to drugs, they say they have become resistant and this is one of the major issues in the fight against the disease. This involved 500,000 people last year, but only a third of them were offered effective second-line treatment.
►Read more: India facing the scourge of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis
On the prevention side, progress is also being made, but they are as far from being as important as it should be. One of the most effective ways is to provide treatment for people infected with Mycobacterium Tuberculosis before they develop the disease, with particular emphasis on children under 5 years of age. This was the case last year for 350,000 of them, a figure that has quadrupled compared to 2015, but we are still far from reaching the 4 million children who could receive such preventive treatment.
A lack of funding screaming
" It's time to act, " says the World Health Organization in its report. But for that, it will take money: it is indeed the lack of funding that largely explains the difference observed between objectives and results on the ground. It is estimated that we must invest $ 10 billion a year to hope to overcome tuberculosis. He missed $ 3 billion last year. The same is true of research: of the $ 2 billion needed a year, only $ 800 million was mobilized last year. This is partly because no new medical advances have occurred in 2018 and 2019. For example, there is still no rapid, reliable and easily deployable TB test in the field. In the same way, the vaccine is slow, although the WHO notes that 14 candidates are currently in short clinical trials.