Published: Less than 50 min ago
At the same time that mortality from covid-19 is decreasing globally, tuberculosis now tops the list of the infectious disease that claims the most lives.
Around 1,500 die daily from covid according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. While that number is falling, largely due to widespread vaccination efforts and new treatments, the number of people dying from tuberculosis rose in 2020 for the first time in years.
About 4,000 people now die daily from tuberculosis, according to the non-profit organization TB Alliance.
Stuck in development
Mel Spiegelman, director of the TB Alliance, which, among other things, works to develop and distribute drugs against tuberculosis, says that the focus has shifted during the pandemic and contributed to the number of cases now increasing.
– We have gone from very slow progress to the reverse, he says.
While the world rallied to develop vaccines, treatments and implement measures to reduce the spread of covid-19, not as much is being done against tuberculosis, according to Spiegelman. Closures and restrictions in healthcare during the pandemic have, on the contrary, had negative effects in combating tuberculosis. People have not sought and received care for the disease to the same extent as before.
New treatment does not arrive
About five percent of those affected by the disease have a variant that is resistant to many of the most common types of antibiotics. This means that patients need to take up to eight tablets and also one injection a day for up to two years. But since a couple of years there has been an approved treatment which consists of three tablets over six months and which is significantly more effective.
But significantly greater efforts are needed to reach out with the medicines to those who need them, according to Spiegelman.
– If it was a disease that affected the rich, it would look different, he says.