World Tuberculosis Day 2023: Yes! We Can End TB! -By Maclawrence Kolapo Famuyiwa

Since 1982, the World TB Day has been annually celebrated on March 24 of every year. This date was chosen to commemorate the date in 1882 that Dr. Robert Koch made known his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the bacterium responsible for causing tuberculosis (TB). The day is set aside to educate the public about the impact of TB around the world and to campaign to end the existence of this deadly disease.

Dr. Koch’s discovery announced in Berlin on March 24^th, 1882 was very timely, since it was during the period that TB was blustering like a wild storm through Europe and Americas responsible for the death of one out of every seven people there. It was that timely discovery that led to proper diagnosis and cure of TB infected individuals.

Background to the World TB Day

TB is one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers. It is transmitted through the air from infected persons to uninfected persons, when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks or spits, the bacteria are released into the air and thereafter infects any person that inhales a handful of these bacteria. In so doing, about10.6 million fell ill with TB in 2021 according to the World Health Organization(WHO) out of whom 1.6 million died. In effect, about 30,000 people fall ill daily with TB and more than 4,000 of them lose their lives even though, the disease is preventable and curable. But with the concerted efforts being put into ending TB, about 74 million lives have since been saved from TB death.

For 2023, the theme of the World TB Day is “Yes! We can end TB!” This is to conjunctively inspire hope and support high-level leadership, more investment, more rapid uptake of new WHO recommendations, innovations ratification, accelerated action, and multisectoral cooperation to fight the TB epidemic.

Need for high-level leadership and action to end TB

This year celebration is epochal because of the opportunities it presents to raise awareness and to sway high-level political allegiances to commit to ending TB during the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB. It is also expected that the World Health Organization and partners will issue a clarion call to kick-start the new WHO-recommended shorter all-oral treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB, which have been found to be comparatively more efficacious and improving drug compliance.

Urgent investment of resources, care, support and information needed

The COVID-19 pandemic and the on-going conflict and socio-economic crises had in recent years significantly stalled the progress previously recorded in putting an end to TB. WHO pinpointed in its latest Global Tuberculosis Report, that TB incidences and deaths have increased, and that is the first time this has happened in a decade.

It thus, becomes imperative that more investments are needed to play a catch-up on the support needed for the rolling-out of WHO recommended TB preventive treatment options, shorter TB treatment regimens, rapid molecular diagnostics and tests for TB infection, that WHO has ear-marked to be essential in regaining positive momentum at ending TB.

These should be done alongside other innovations and digital tools for the improvement in health outcomes and saving millions of lives. This is also not to forget that investments in research and innovation will also be pivotal in hastening this journey geared towards ending TB, so should be amply applied.

Removing health inequalities

The advent of COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore the disparities that exist in health between and within countries. More importantly, the marginalization and vulnerability of people with TB became too glaring, during this time, that they could no longer be ignored, hence, the reason why concerted efforts are needed to eliminate all barriers that prevent TB patients from accessing care.

Multi-sectoral actions required

Poverty, undernourishment, poor living and working conditions etc. determine the onset of ill health. They also a play a significant role in people developing TB infections and how they will be able top cope with the demands of treatment (including social, financial and medical) and determine their health outcomes. So, in addition to what the health system offers, firm political commitment at the highest level, sterling multisectoral synergy (outside health sector) and an effective accountability system are very consequential.

Conclusion

The adoption of “Yes! We can end TB!” as this year’s World TB Day theme is to bring attention to TB and to remind ourselves that with our collaborative efforts, we can actually end TB by 2030 as part of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. This would be achievable if those affected with TB, communities and civil societies that are in the fore-front oi ending the disease, are robustly more engaged.

All these should be in conjunction with making access to new diagnostics easy, introducing more efficacious treatment regimens, making use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) for TB response. More critical to ensuring this is the support of high-level leadership, more investments into programmes to end TB, more rapid uptake of new WHO recommendations, innovations ratifications, accelerated actions, and multisectoral cooperation to fight the TB epidemic.