Are we on the wrong side of the #endTB track?
SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS
"It is time to stop decades of failure. We have a lot to do to #EndTB by 2030," said Professor (Dr) Guy Marks, President of the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union), at the opening of the largest TB and lung health conference this year in Bali, Indonesia (Union World Lung Health Conference 2024).
Marks is bang on spot. Historically, we never ever have been on track to end TB in high TB-burden countries. At best we have been diagnosing and treating TB and saving lives - and preventing some of TB - but majorly failing to arrest the infection-spread and end TB. If we could prevent TB, then how come 10.8 million people got infected with TB last year as per the new WHO Global TB Report 2024? This amounts to TB prevention failure 10.8 million times last year itself.
Of course, over the decades a lot of work has been done to control TB- but we are still not in TB-elimination mode. Millions have got lifesaving TB services but millions more have also got newly infected with TB - year after year. Millions of lives have been saved of TB but over a million die of TB - year after year. We need to face these inconvenient truths that reflect decades of failure - and truly and fully transition from TB control to #endTB response.
Primarily, with an array of evidence-based tools to prevent TB, no one should get infected with TB in the first place - or die of it. Even one TB death is a death too many.
TB treatment is also prevention, because soon after a person with TB disease gets on an effective treatment, infection stops spreading. Nutrition, tobacco control, alcohol control, HIV and diabetes prevention and management, optimal infection control, are important ways to reduce the risk of TB.
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