Esther Odediran
Every year millions of people receive drugs for the treatment of Tuberculosis but from 2020 to 2021 the effect of Covid-19 has caused a rapid drop. Today being the 24th of March is World Tuberculosis(TB) Day. A day used to create awareness about the effect of Tuberculosis to the economy, social and health and how to stop this epidemic.
In celebration of this day, World Health Organization has declared the theme of World Tuberculosis(TB) Day 2021- ‘The Clock is Ticking’ in the sense that while the world is busy with other engagements, our commitments to end TB must not be delayed
No doubt, the effect of Covid-19 shook the world negatively and it’s still affecting us. The supplies of Covid-19 vaccines to several countries has shown how much leaders are committed to eradicating this epidemic. However, health experts believe the pandemic will have an adverse impact on the treatment and prevention of Tuberculosis.
According to WHO, Covid-19 caused the “End TB progress at risk”. UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to end the Tuberculosis by 2030 and have been sourcing for funds for years but this goal has been slowed by poor funding then Covid-19.
Poor funding has always the problem to achieving the 2022 goal (treatment of 1.5 million people with multidrug-resistant TB or MDR TB) for years now.
The effect of Covid-19 on Tuberculosis treatment cannot be overemphasized. Manpower, budgets and supplies have been redirected to the treatment of Covid-19.
Therefore, Tuberculosis diagnoses has been missed and it is likely to result in 200,000 to 400,000 excess deaths from the disease in 2020 alone with a further million new cases occurring every year if urgent measures are not used.
The Executive Director of Stop TB, Lucica Ditiu said:
Twelve years of impressive gains in the fight against TB – including in reducing the number of people who were missing from TB care – have been tragically reversed by another virulent respiratory infection.
According to Stop TB Partnership survey last year, due to Covid-19 there was 25% decrease in diagnosis and treatment of Tuberculosis around the world. Thereby, reversing a dozen years of global Tuberculosis treatment progress.
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