WHO says tuberculosis has replaced Covid as the top infectious disease killer


Tuberculosis has replaced COVID-19 to become the top cause of infectious disease-related deaths in 2023, according to a World Health Organization report published Tuesday that highlights challenges in the global effort to eliminate the disease. Throws light.

According to the UN agency, about 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed last year, meaning they could receive appropriate treatment – ​​the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB surveillance in 1995. That's more than the 7.5 million reported in 2022.

According to the report, the data shows that the eradication of tuberculosis is still a distant goal as it faces persistent challenges such as significant shortfalls in the fight against the disease.

“The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have all the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. There are tools.”

While the number of disease-related deaths fell from 1.32 million in 2022 to 1.25 million in 2023, the total number of people falling ill rose slightly to an estimated 10.8 million in 2023.

The agency said global milestones and targets to reduce the burden of disease have not been derailed and considerable progress is needed to reach other targets set for 2027.

Low- and middle-income countries, which bear 98% of the disease burden, faced severe funding shortfalls.

In 2023, the gap between the projected number of new tuberculosis cases and reported cases narrows to about 2.7 million, down from the COVID-19 pandemic level of about 4 million in 2020 and 2021.

WHO said multidrug-resistant forms of the disease remain a public health crisis.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)


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