World Tuberculosis Day 2023: Here's everything you need to know about TB and how we can end it

World Tuberculosis Day 2023:The theme for World Tuberculosis Day 2023 is 'Yes! We can end TB!' After the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis cases have seen a sharp rise. Tuberculosis is a deadly disease, but it is curable and preventable. Treatment and diagnosis of tuberculosis have saved 66 million lives in the last two decades. However, there were an estimated 1.6 million deaths due to TB globally in 2021. Tuberculosis is the second biggest infectious after COVID-19. Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes TB, which affects the lungs. It's not a virus, but a bacteria. More than 80 per cent of cases and deaths from TB occur in low and middle-income countries. India has the highest burden of TB, with more than 2.5 million cases in 2021, around a quarter of the cases worldwide. In 2021, more than half a million people in India died from TB, a third of the TB deaths worldwide. The Indian government has set ambitious targets to end tuberculosis by 2025, five years ahead of the WHO goal.

Diagnosis & Treatment of Tuberculosis

There are two types of tuberculosis, latent and active. Moreover, there are drug-sensitive and drug-resistant forms of active TB. Around 25 per cent of the global population has latent TB. It means the bacteria is present in the body, but it doesn't become a disease. However, latent TB can become active if your immune system gets affected by another health condition like HIV or diabetes. In India, only 10 per cent get TB disease. Thus, diagnosis of latent and active TB, treatment and vaccination are three essential steps to ending tuberculosis. However, WHO also calls for 'intensified research and innovation' as a part of the 'End TB Strategy.'

Tuberculosis vaccine development

There's only one licensed vaccine for tuberculosis- BCG. It was first administered in 1921, more than 100 years ago. However, it's only effective in children. Researches require funding to develop a new TB vaccine. However, the commercial opportunities for TB drugs and vaccines in developed countries are limited, which hinders investment.

Global Collaboration to end Tuberculosis

Similar to the vaccine, the treatment available for drug-sensitive TB is old. It has remained the same for 40 years. Moreover, the TB drugs, MDR TB, have unpleasant side effects. Thus, we need a global effort to end the deadly disease. The World Economic Forum launched the EWTB (Ending workplace tuberculosis), a network supporting companies to strengthen workplace health systems to tackle all respiratory diseases.