TB - tuberculosis is now the fifth most common cause of death globally

Tuberculosis is now the fifth most common cause of death globally, said the World Health Organization on Thursday 13 October 2016 – below heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The WHO said that TB, an airborne disease, had an estimated 10.4 million new cases in 2015 and killed 1.8 million of them. For the second year in a row TB is the world’s top infectious disease killer, surpassing HIV/AIDS. In 2015, about 1.1 million people died from HIV/AIDS, with 400,000 of them co-infections of TB and HIV/AIDS.

The overall rate of new TB cases actually decreased by 1.5% between 2014 and 2015, but this is short of the 2020 milestone in the WHO ‘End TB Strategy.’

Public health officials said that they have the ability to diagnose tuberculosis, treat it, and cure it. The problem is that there is a nearly $2 billion shortfall in the funds needed to fight tuberculosis in low and middle income countries, and a shortfall of $1.3 billion needed for research to address the disease. About 40% of new TB cases in 2015 were not captured by health care systems, meaning that people are possibly not receiving treatment. ‘It ‘s badly underfunded,’ said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of teh WHO Global TB Programme.

The lack of global political will needed to eliminate TB is a major problem that may affect efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Goal for 2030.

Countries with extremely high incidences of tuberculosis in 2015 (over 400 cases per 100,000 persons) included Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, Korea, Djibouti, Gabon, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia.

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).