WHO urges member countries in Southeast Asia to bolster efforts to end TB

The World Health Organization has urged member countries in the Southeast Asia region to build on the momentum created to end TB with accelerated multi-sectoral efforts led by the highest political level to reach every affected and at-risk person, and address the socio-economic determinants and impact of the disease.

In a statement, WHO’s Southeast Asia Region Regional Director Saima Wazed said, “A primary healthcare-based approach that addresses TB determinants such as undernutrition, embraces new technologies including developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence and has communities and affected populations at the center of all efforts, should be among the key elements of our reinvigorated approach.”

According to the Global TB Report 2024 published by the WHO, more than 3.8 million people were initiated on TB treatment in the WHO South-East Asia Region in 2023, the highest ever and nearly 1.3 million more than in the year 2020 impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimated percentage of people with TB, missed by the programme, reduced from 44 per cent to 22 per cent in 2020, according to the statement released by WHO.

According to the report, the estimated number of deaths due to TB reached 583, 000 in 2023, after a peak of 763,000 in 2021. However, the region continues to account for a disproportionate 45 per cent of the global TB burden with an estimated over 5 million people developing the disease in 2023, and over half of TB deaths globally in 2023.

Nearly 1.5 million people received TB preventive treatment which helps protect high-risk populations from developing the disease. However, the coverage remained low with only nine per cent of people living with HIV and less than a quarter of household contacts of bacteriologically confirmed TB patients, receiving preventive treatment, according to the statement.

The available funding for TB in the Region reached USD 1.1 billion in 2023, witnessing a rise of 70 per cent through domestic sources. However, a huge gap of nearly USD 2 billion per year persists for the implementation of a comprehensive strategy to end TB in the Region, according to a WHO statement.

Saima Wazed noted that countries in the Southeast Asia region have been making efforts. However, she added that the huge disease burden, its catastrophic socio-economic impact and severe resource crunch call for accelerated and urgent actions.

She stressed the need for multisectoral, multidisciplinary collaboration and coordination for the pooling of resources to end TB, leaving no one behind to reach every TB-affected person, their families and those at risk of developing the disease irrespective of where they live. She said that reaching the unreached, particularly those who are vulnerable and marginalised is key to the fight against TB.

In the statement, Wazed said, “It is time to push the pedal on the momentum built collectively by the Member countries of the Region in efforts towards ending TB.”

On August 18, 2023, member countries of the South-East Asia region signed the Gandhinagar Declaration to step up efforts to end TB. On September 22, 2023, world leaders at the second United Nations high-level meeting on the fight against TB adopted a historic declaration with commitments to ambitious and comprehensive time-bound targets and actions.

These targets and actions aim to enhance equitable access to TB services, protect human rights, address TB determinants, reduce vulnerability, accelerate research and innovation, and mobilize sufficient resources to support these endeavours.