According to the World Health Organization’s 2021 Global TB report released on Thursday, the cases of tuberculosis (TB) in India dropped down by 41 per cent between 2019 and 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic
India, followed by Indonesia (14 per cent), the Philippines (12 per cent) and China (8 per cent) were the top four countries that counted the most to the global reduction in TB notifications between 2019 and 2020.
Including these four, about 16 countries together reported 93 per cent of the total global drop in notifications. In the report it has been revealed that the number of people newly treated with TB and those reported to national governments dropped to 5.8 million in 2020 from 7.1 million in 2019.
According to an estimation of WHO some 4.1 million people are currently suffering from TB and have not yet been diagnosed with the disease or have not officially reported to the national authorities. This figure is up from 2.9 million in 2019.
An analysis done by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare conducted in March 2021 revealed that the notification of TB cases in India reduced by 25 per cent between January and December 2020 because of the lockdown and diversion of resources for Covid-19 control measures.
In 2019, the number of cases reported was24.04 lakh, a rise of 12 per cent from former times. It reduced by 25 per cent to18.02 lakh cases in 2020.
The 2021 WHO Global TB report features data on complaint trends and the response to the epidemic from 197 countries and areas, including 182 of the 194 World Health Organization (WHO) Member States.
It showed that the Covid-19 epidemic reversed times of global progress in diving TB.
Nearly1.5 million people failed from TB in 2020 ( including among the HIV positive). The increase in TB deaths, the first in further than a decade, passed substantially in the 30 countries with the loftiest burden of TB, including India, and also in 2020 than in 2019.
The major reasons were due to dislocation in access to TB services and a reduction in coffers and people floundering to seek care in the environment of lockdowns, as in numerous countries, mortal, fiscal and other coffers were reallocated from diving TB to the Covid-19 response, the report said.
The WHO models and protrusions suggest that the number of people developing TB and dying from the complaint could be much advanced in 2021 and 2022.
“This report confirms our fears that the dislocation of essential health services due to the epidemic could start to unravel times of progress against tuberculosis,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in a statement.
“This is intimidating news that must serve as a global wake-up call to the critical need for investments and invention to close the gaps in opinion, treatment and care for the millions of people affected by this ancient but preventable and treatable complaint,”he added.
There was also a reduction in provision of TB preventative treatment. Some2.8 million people penetrated this in 2020, a 21 per cent reduction since 2019. In addition, the number of people treated for medicine-resistant TB fell by 15 per cent, from 177 000 in 2019 to 150 000 in 2020, original to only about 1 in 3 of those in need, the report said.
Also, 2020 also saw a drop in global investment for TB individual, treatment and forestallment services, from$5.8 billion to$5.3 billion– lower than half of the global target of$ 13 billion annually by 2022.
Backing in the low and middle- income countries that regard for 98 per cent of reported TB cases remains a challenge. Of the total backing available in 2020, 81 per cent came from domestic sources, with the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa) account for 65 per cent of total domestic backing.
However the report also noted some successes. Encyclopedically, the reduction in the number of TB deaths between 2015 and 2020 was only9.2 per cent– about one quarter of the way to the 2020 corner of 35 per cent.
Encyclopedically, the number of people falling ill with TB each time ( relative to population) dropped 11 per cent from 2015 to 2020, just over half- way to the 2020 corner of 20 per cent.
“We have just one year left to reach the historic 2022 TB targets committed by Heads of State at the first UN High Level Meeting on TB. The report provides important information and a strong reminder to countries to urgently fast-track their TB responses and save lives,” said Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global TB Programme.
The report calls on countries to put in place urgent measures to restore access to essential TB services, double investments in TB research and innovation.