Tuberculosis is a disease that is rated in the top 10 killers in the world today, ranking higher than HIV and Malaria. Although world governments have attempted to clamp down on this epidemic, recent studies show that the disease is spreading.
The World Health Organization just released their 2016 Global Tuberculosis Report and their study shows that world governments are failing to meet their goals in reducing tuberculosis infections and fatalities. The paper blames poor reporting and lack of government funding for falling short in achieving the two main ambitions of curbing the epidemic.
Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO director-general, cried out for more action from WHO countries to battle TB, as she released a statement regarding the report.
"There must be a massive scale-up of efforts, or countries will continue to run behind this deadly epidemic and these ambitious goals will be missed," Dr. Chan said. "We face an uphill battle to reach the global targets for tuberculosis."
In the 2014 World Health Assembly, world governments agreed that by 2030, countries in the assembly would reduce respiratory infection deaths by 90 percent, and reported respiratory infection cases by 80 percent, compared to the number compiled by 2015.
Unfortunately, the data procured from the WHO global TB database showed that 1.8 million deaths were due to the disease, and even with India's improved reporting, the global index still had a 4.3 million gap between reported incidents (6.1 million) and estimated new cases (10.4 million). The death toll is 300,000 more than last year, according to PRI.
Most of the tuberculosis cases estimated hail from the Asian region (61 percent), with the WHO African Region (26 percent) coming in second. Amongst countries, the top six are India, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa. These six nations amount to 60 percent of the global total, showing that developing countries are the most hampered by the disease.
Lack of funding to fight tuberculosis was also noted to waylay the achievement of the goals set in 2014. The estimated amount for TB cure, prevention and investments fell almost $2 billion short, for developing countries, according to the report.
"This gap will widen to $6 billion by 2020 if current levels of funding are not increased," the report warned. With low- and middle-income countries continually short on funding, most rely heavily on international assistance, with 75 percent of the finance coming from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The USAID TB isn't helping, as the NPR reports that by 2017, the budget for TB will be at it's lowest since 2009.
