Tuberculosis, with 8.2 million new cases declared, in 2023, rises to first place in the ranking of the most contagious infectious diseases, displacing Covid-19 and far exceeding the figures corresponding to 2022, according to the latest report annual report of this disease published today, in Geneva, by the World Health Organization (WHO).
With more than eight million cases of infection registered in 2023, the 7.5 million registered in 2022 were far exceeded, this organization stated. Furthermore, a favorable evolution is not expected in the short term due to the lack of economic means to combat it. The good news is that during 2023 the number of fatalities decreased1.25 million compared to 1.32 million the previous year.
The report indicates that countries with few resources and a high morbidity rate continue to be the most affected, such as India with a percentage of 26% of total infections, Indonesia (10%), China (6.8%). , Philippines (6.8%) and Pakistan (6.3%). These six countries accumulate more than half, 56%, of cases worldwide.
Tuberculosis infections, 2023, were detected mainly in males, 55%, 33% were women and 12% were children or adolescents. The detection of new cases has significantly improved mainly due to the infection detection mechanisms implemented after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is a scandal that tuberculosis continues to kill”
“The fact that tuberculosis continues to kill in the world is a scandal because we have the necessary tools to prevent, detect and treat this disease,” declared the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on the occasion of the publication of the study. More than ten million people live in the world with this disease.
While preventive treatments for tuberculosis in the case of people with HIV have been maintained and continue to be improved in the case of people who live with HIV-positive people, multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MR-RR) constitutes a real health problem. public, the report stated.
According to the WHO, despite the fact that the treatment of rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-MR) achieved therapeutic successes of up to 68%, in 2023 there will be a high number of patients who do not receive treatment, almost half of 400,000 who developed tuberculosis of this type last year.
Financial deficit
Throughout 2023, a decrease in financial means to prevent and treat tuberculosis was detected worldwide and currently the available capacity is far from the set goal. The poorest or low-income countries, which represent 98% of the burden
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