TB progress set back a decade by COVID-19 – WHO

ABSTRACT

Speed read TB may have claimed more than half a million extra lives in 2020 – WHO Progress on TB ‘set back a decade’ with resources redirected to COVID-19 Tackling TB and COVID-19 in tandem could help reverse the decline, say experts More than half a million people may have died last year as a result of reductions in TB diagnosis and care, setting back progress towards ending the disease by a decade, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. Lockdowns and reassignments of health staff and equipment have had a “severe impact” on essential TB services, according to a WHO report on the effects of the global pandemic on TB detection and mortality. “Communities, individuals and health systems are facing both these challenges, and they have to have the financial and human resources to respond.”