TB in Africa accounts for more than a quarter of all TB deaths, it is the ninth leading cause of death worldwide. An estimated 1.6 million people died from TB in 2021.
TB in Africa accounts for more than a quarter of all TB deaths, it is the ninth leading cause of death worldwide and the leading cause of death caused by a single infectious agent, surpassing HIV/AIDS.
For the past 60 years, effective tuberculosis (TB) treatment has been available. However, tuberculosis remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. It ranks higher than HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
This is due in part to the impact of HIV coinfection among TB patients in places such as Africa, as well as the emergency of MDR-XDR TB. Lack of gender mainstreaming and stigma reduction, as evidenced by consistently lower reported cases among women than men, is a continuing source of concern.
COVID-19 has surpassed tuberculosis as a killer in the last two years. Since 2005, the number of people dying from tuberculosis has been decreasing. But now TB is back at the top. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of people receiving TB treatment fell, owing largely to COVID-related lockdowns. In 2021, 61% of people with tuberculosis were receiving treatment, down from 69% in 2020.
TB elimination progress was being made, however, the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns have hampered global TB control efforts. This is especially true in Africa. While COVID-19 prevention measures such as mask use could have prevented TB transmission, little attention was paid to holding the forts of TB prevention and treatment as all efforts were directed toward combating the COVID-19 pandemic, disrupting well-functioning programmes built over decades of careful research and planning. As a result of this disruption, the following have occurred:
There will be 10.6 million new active TB cases worldwide in 2021, up from 9.9 million in 2020. These increases have occurred in both drug-sensitive and multi-drug resistant cases of tuberculosis.
An estimated 1.6 million people died from TB in 2021, up from 1.5 million in 2020 and 1.4 million in 2019. This represents a reversal of years of decline preceding the COVID-19 pandemic. A quarter of TB-related deaths occur in Africa, which has about 16% of the world’s population. HIV is a significant contributor.
Global spending on essential tuberculosis services fell from $6.0 billion in 2019 to $5.4 billion in 2021. This represents less than half of what is required. The war in Ukraine has exacerbated the long-term decline in tuberculosis prevention and control.