8 Million People Were Infected With TB In 2023. WHO Says That's The Highest It Has Seen
Date
10/30/2024 12:08:49 AM
(MENAFN- Nam News Network)
GENEVA, Oct 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) - More than 8 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis last year, the World health Organization said, the highest number recorded since the UN health agency began keeping track.
About 1.25 million people died of TB last year, the
new report
said, adding that TB likely returned to being the world's top infectious disease killer after being replaced by COVID-19 during the pandemic. The deaths are almost double the number of people killed by HIV in 2023.
WHO said TB continues to mostly affect people in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Western Pacific; India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines and Pakistan account for more than half of the world's cases.
“The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
TB deaths continue to fall globally, however, and the number of people being newly infected is beginning to stabilize. The agency noted that of the 400,000 people estimated to have drug-resistant TB last year, fewer than half were diagnosed and treated.
Tuberculosis is caused by airborne bacteria that mostly affects the lungs. Roughly a quarter of the global population is estimated to have TB, but only about 5–10% of those develop symptoms.
Advocacy groups, including Doctors Without Borders, have long called for the US company Cepheid, which produces TB tests used in poorer countries, to make them available for $5 per test to increase availability.
Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders and 150 global health partners sent Cepheid an open letter calling on them to“prioritize people's lives” and to urgently help make TB testing more widespread globally. - NNN-AGENCIES
MENAFN30102024000200011047ID1108831925
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.