GENEVA – On World Tuberculosis Day, new data shows the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the fight against another deadly airborne disease: tuberculosis. Global Fund surveys in 13 countries with the highest TB burden in the world reveal that 29% fewer people were tested for TB compared to 2019. Worse, in those same countries, there were 45% fewer people tested for multidrug-resistant TB – one of the most frightening forms of antimicrobial resistance.
As COVID-19 spread around the world in 2020, health workers, testing machines, laboratories and health centers were diverted from existing diseases like TB to fight the new pandemic. Without treatment, a single person with TB can infect 10-15 other people over the course of a year, or die.
“The fewer people we find, test and treat, the more TB cases and deaths there will be, and the higher the risk of multidrug-resistant TB spreading worldwide,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “To end both COVID-19 and TB as epidemics, we must fight both diseases at the same time, increasing investments in the same tools, health workers and systems for health needed to fight TB and COVID-19 and prepare for future airborne pandemics.”
Results from 2020 show this is possible. The same tools the Global Fund partnership has built to fight TB are now being used to fight COVID-19, and emergency funding from the Global Fund to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on HIV, TB and malaria programs and reinforce systems for health has helped countries to continue to fight TB at the same time as fighting COVID-19.
For example, while testing levels plummeted in India and Bangladesh in the first months after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they were able to rebound towards the end of 2020 and to test and treat nearly the same number of TB patients as they were pre-COVID. Countries have also accelerated innovative new approaches to fight TB, such as transitioning to all-oral treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB and using new smartphone applications to enable patients to report progress virtually, making it easier to adhere to treatment. In India, a new program tests people for COVID-19 and TB at the same time, a simple step that can stop onward transmission of both diseases – and ensure that TB patients are treated and cured.
To regain progress lost in 2020 and prevent a resurgence of TB, these successful adaptation programs and new approaches must be scaled up and expanded to other countries.
“Investing to fight TB and COVID-19 at the same time will save lives from both diseases. If we don’t, we run the risk of defeating one airborne pandemic only to watch deaths and cases from another soar,” said Sands.
24 March 2021, The Global Fund
Recommended readings
- Global Tuberculosis Report 2020
- National Tuberculosis Program Update in Nepal #WorldTBDay #EndTB
- National TB Prevalence Survey, 2018-19 Key findings
- World Tuberculosis Day 2020! It’s time to End TB!
- National Guideline on Drug Resistant TB Management 2019, Nepal
- National Tuberculosis Management Guideline 2019, Nepal
- Global Tuberculosis Report 2019: Latest status of the tuberculosis epidemic
- National TB Prevalence Survey, 2018-19 Key findings
- New WHO recommendations to prevent tuberculosis aim to save millions of lives
- World Health Organization (WHO) Information Note Tuberculosis and COVID-19
- World Tuberculosis Day 2020! It’s time to End TB!
- People-centred framework for tuberculosis programme planning and prioritization, User guide
- Global Tuberculosis Report 2019: Latest status of the tuberculosis epidemic
- Dissemination of Findings and Recommendations of Joint External Monitoring Mission(JEMM) of Nepal National Tuberculosis Program
- National Tuberculosis Programme Annual Report 2018
- National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Prevention, Care and Control 2016 – 2021
- NTP, Nepal: New TB Treatment Algorithm & Regimen (Updated)
- WHO announces landmark changes in MDR-TB treatment regimens
- TB Vaccine results announce a promising step towards ending the emergency
- 7 million people receive record levels of lifesaving TB treatment but 3 million still miss out
Recommended organizational profile
- Organogram and Reporting Mechanism of Nepalese Health System in Federal Context
- Province Health Directorate (HD)
- The Nursing and Social Security Division (NSSD)
- Clinical Trial Registration Process in Nepal
- NepMed, Nepal MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online)
- Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC)
- The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), Nepal
- Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, Department of Health Services
- Department of Drug Administration (DDA), Ministry of Health and Population
- Department of Health Services (DoHS), Ministry of Health and Population
- Department of Ayurveda and Alternative Medicine (DoAA)
- Management Division, Department of Health Services
- Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, Department of Health Services
- Family Welfare Division (FWD), Department of Health Services
- National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL)
- Province Health Directorate, Ministry of Social Development (MoSD)
- List of Approved Institutional Review Committee (IRC), NHRC
- National Health Training Center (NHTC)
- Nepal Ayurvedic Medical Council (NAMC)
- The Nursing and Social Security Division (NSSD)
