WHO releases Global TB Report 2016

a. Malaria

b. Typhoid

c. Tetanus

d. TB

 

The World Health Organisation on 13th Oct 2016 released the Global Tuberculosis Report 2016 showcasing that countries need to move on faster to prevent as well as detect and treat TB.

• The report highlights the inequalities among countries in enabling people with TB to access existing cost effective diagnosis and treatment interventions that can accelerate decline in TB worldwide
• Report signals need for bold political commitment and increased funding to access cost effective diagnosis and treatment for meeting international targets
• In an effort to respond to TB, more than 3 million lives have been saved in 2015; the TB burden is higher than previously estimated indicating survey data from India
• In the year 2015, there were 10.4 million new TB cases worldwide.
• Six countries accounted for 60 percent of the total burden with India bearing the most massive load, followed by Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa
• An estimated 1.8 million people died from TB in 2015 of which 0.4 million were infected with HIV-AIDS
• While global TB deaths fell by 22% between 2000 and 2015, the disease was one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide in 2015
• Gaps in testing for TB and reporting new causes are a major issue- of an estimated 10.4 million new cases whereby 6.1 million were detected and notified, there was a gap of 4.3 million
• Additionally, the rate of reduction in TB cases remained static at 1.5 percent from 2014 to 2015
• The need is to accelerate this to 4-5 percent by 2020 as per the World Health Assembly approved end TB strategy
• Multi-drug resistant TB remains a crisis in public health with the WHO estimating that 480,000 people fell ill with MDR-TB in 2015
• The country carries a major burden of Multiple Drug Resistant TB long with China and the Russian Federation which account for nearly half of the cases globally
• In 2015, 22 percent of HIV positive TB patients were not enrolled on antiretroviral therapy
• Close to 84% of the financing available in middle and low income countries in 2016 was from domestic sources
• This was mostly accounted by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa)
• Other low and middle income countries relied considerably on global donor financing with more than 75 percent coming from The Global Fund ti Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
• WHO estimates that at least an extra 1 billion US dollar per year is required to accelerate the new vaccines, diagnostics and medicines
• India underreported TB for 15 years from 2000-2015, according to WHO which then underestimated the global TB epidemic
• India has reported only 56 percent of its TB burden in 2014 and 59 percent in 2015
• As India accounts for more than one quarter of the TB cases and deaths in the world, the revisions in estimated have a considerable impact on international estimates
• Revised estimates place the incidence of TB in India at 217 per 100,000 people in 2015 as against 127 which was previously estimated
• In fulfilment of the SDGs, numerous governments have agreed to end the RB epidemic at both the World Health Assembly and the United Nations General Assembly
• Targets include 90 percent reduction in TB deaths and 80 percent reduction in cases in 2030 as against 2015