Extensive immediate actions needed for global control of tuberculosis

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Mar 24 2022

Announcing a new article publication for Zoonoses journal. In this article the authors discuss how extensive immediate actions worldwide are required to progress toward a tuberculosis-free world.

Tuberculosis is a zoonotic disease that is caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and can infect humans, livestock, and wildlife.

It spreads primarily through the respiratory tract and was the leading cause of death due to a single infectious disease before the COVID-19 pandemic. TB is a global public health emergency that has reemerged over the past few decades. Substantial efforts are needed to achieve the goals of the End TB Strategy.

The World Health Organization has estimated that approximately 9.9 million people worldwide contracted TB in 2020 and that approximately 140,000 of the 10 million new cases of active TB in 2019 were zoonotic TB. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of new TB diagnoses and reports decreased sharply, from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million in 2020, returning to 2012 levels far below the approximately 10 million TB cases in 2020. Simultaneously, the global decrease in the absolute number of TB deaths until 2019 was followed by an increase in 2020 in four of the six WHO regions and most of the 30 high-TB-burden countries.