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MEDIAPLANET
To end TB, we must prevent TB Tuberculosis is a terrible illness caused by a bacteria that spreads from person to person through the air. Left untreated the disease typically causes a person to lose tremendous amounts of weight and become increasingly short of breath, withering the body to nothing if left untreated. Through their participation in the United Nations, governments committed to ending the TB epidemic by the year 2030. As we enter the year 2020, however, we are far from reaching that goal. A key part of ending TB is prevention.
We are far from reaching our 2030 goal to end TB We know from data modeling that ending TB is not realistic without much stronger prevention efforts. We can prevent people from becoming infected with TB, we can prevent people from developing TB disease and we can prevent people dying from TB. Despite having this knowledge, we are not (with some important exceptions) making nearly enough progress as we need to on TB prevention.
According to the World Health Organization, young children especially are missing out on TB prevention. Every child exposed to TB in their household needs TB preventive therapy before they become sick. Yet only one in four such children receives that therapy. People living with HIV (PLHIV) are also eligible for TB preventive therapy, yet half of PLHIV are going without it. Against this gloomy backdrop, however, there is hope. There is growing recognition that people at risk of TB have a right to know whether they’re living with a TB infection and to make informed decisions about how to safeguard their own health, including through receiving preventive therapy.
Preventative therapy is becoming more straightforward And preventive therapy itself is improving, becoming easier for people to take. Whereas standard therapy used to take nine months, today we’re seeing effective preventive options that require taking only one pill weekly for three months, or one pill daily for one month. We’ve also seen a new TB vaccine candidate that could have a significant impact if late-stage testing is successful. It is inexcusable that people are dying from this entirely preventable disease. The Union is committed to doing all that we can to help countries prevent TB. The rationale is simple: to end TB, we must prevent TB.
P H OTO : V I N C EN T B EC K ER
One of the most alarming aspects of The Union’s work to end the global tuberculosis epidemic, is knowing TB is both the leading infectious killer globally and at the same time a very preventable illness.
Image and content provided by The Global Fund
José Luis Castro Executive Director, The Union
Polina Kisel, a patient with multidrugresistant TB, with an x-ray photo of her chest in Minsk, Belarus. In Belarus, 38% of new TB cases in 2018 are drug-resistant, which means a longer, costlier, and more difficult treatment for patients like Polina. To stop drug-resistant TB we need better diagnosis, better drugs, and better treatment procedures.
Arim, a patient with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDRTB), holds an X-ray of his damaged lungs. Arim, from Kurdistan, had to go to Jordan to get adequate treatment for his disease.
Image and content provided by The Global Fund
P H OTO : V I N C EN T B EC K ER
Arim’s TB story... XDR-TB is particularly complex, and requires prolonged treatment. Arim has been on a treatment regime for more than two years, and has responded well to new drugs that have become available. His personal journey has been arduous, and he is stoic about the challenges that have come his way.
Drug-susceptible TB and XDR TB are spread the same way. TB bacteria are put into the air when a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, shouts, or sings. These bacteria can float in the air for several hours, depending on the environment. Persons who breathe in the air containing these TB bacteria can become infected.
