On the 14th local time, the World Health Organization released a global tuberculosis report. In 19 years, about 1.4 million people died of tuberculosis-related diseases and about 10 million people suffered from tuberculosis. Of these, about 3 million patients were not diagnosed or reported. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries made steady progress in tackling tuberculosis. Between 2015 and 2019, the incidence of tuberculosis fell by 9%, and deaths fell by 14%. But the report shows that without urgent action and investment, the global goal of preventing and treating tuberculosis may be difficult to achieve.
The report pointed out that the human and financial resources used by many countries to deal with tuberculosis have been transferred to the new crown pneumonia. Data from more than 200 countries and regions show that the number of notifications of tuberculosis cases has decreased significantly. From January to June this year, the number of reported cases in the three high-burden countries of tuberculosis, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, decreased by 25% to 30% year-on-year. According to the WHO estimation model, this may lead to a sharp increase in tuberculosis deaths.