War against tuberculuses

The World Health Organisation (WHO)has said that the fight against tuberculosis (TB) is paying off, with this year’s death rate nearly half of what it was in 1990.

This is according to WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2015, which was released on Wednesday in Washington D.C.

The organisation said 1.5 million people died from the disease last year, with more than half occurring in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan.

“Most of these deaths could have been prevented,” according to the report.

The report said to reduce TB’s overall burden, detection and treatment gaps needed to be closed, funding shortfalls filled and new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines developed.

On the positive side, it added that effective diagnosis and treatment saved 43 million lives between 2000 and 2015.

It quoted WHO Director-General. Dr Margaret Chan as saying:"the report shows that TB control has had a tremendous impact in terms of lives saved and patients cured.

"These advances are heartening, but if the world is to end this epidemic, it needs to scale up services and, critically, invest in research.”