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Global COVID-19 pandemic response could spell disaster for those living with TB

The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and protracted lockdowns could spell disaster for those living with tuberculosis. According to The Times, a modelling study by the Stop TB Partnership says curbs on diagnosis, treatment and prevention services during the lockdown would have unintended yet drastic consequences on TB. A three-month lockdown and another 10 months to restore services would lead to an additional 6.3m TB infections worldwide and 1.4m more deaths, said the report.

“We never learn from mistakes. For the past five years, TB, a respiratory disease, has remained the biggest infectious disease killer because the ‘TB agenda’ consistently became less visible in front of other priorities,” said Dr Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the partnership. “Today, governments face a torturous path, navigating between the imminent disaster of COVID-19 and the long-running plague of TB. But choosing to ignore TB again would erase at least half a decade of hard-earned progress against the world’s most deadly infection and make millions more people sick.”

Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, head of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town, says it is crucial that TB programmes are not neglected. “The COVID-19 fight is important but we should not lose sight of South Africa’s two epidemics – HIV and TB – which we haven’t got under control yet.”

The estimated number of people who have died of TB since the COVID-19 pandemic reached South Africa is 10,500 – about 70 times more than coronavirus deaths.

According to the study, which was commissioned by the Stop TB Partnership along with Imperial College in the UK and Johns Hopkins University in the US, new TB cases and deaths in 2021 will increase to levels last seen between 2013 and 2016 – implying a setback of at least five to eight years in the fight against the infection.

[link url="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-05-06-dont-forget-tb-sas-biggest-killer-in-focus-on-covid-19-experts-warn/"]Full report in The Times[/link]

[link url="http://www.stoptb.org/assets/documents/covid/Social%20Media%20toolkit.pdf"]Stop TB Partnership modelling study[/link]

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