The number of people who fell ill and died with tuberculosis increased during the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.
An estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2021, an increase of 4.5 per cent from 2020, and 1.6 million people died from the disease, according to the WHO's 2022 Global TB report.
Drug-resistant TB also increased by 3 per cent between 2020 and 2021, with 450,000 new cases of rifampicin-resistant TB last year.
This is the first time in many years an increase has been reported in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug-resistant TB.
TB services, among many others, were disrupted by the pandemic last year, with the impact on the TB response particularly severe. Conflicts across Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East have further exacerbated the situation for vulnerable populations.
“If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that with solidarity, determination, innovation and the equitable use of tools, we can overcome severe health threats,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO's director general.
“Let’s apply those lessons to tuberculosis. It is time to put a stop to this long-time killer. Working together, we can end TB.”
Missed TB diagnoses
Challenges in providing and accessing essential TB services have meant that many with TB were not diagnosed and treated.
The reported number of people newly diagnosed with TB fell from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million in 2020. There was a partial recovery to 6.4 million in 2021, but this was still well below pre-pandemic levels.
Reductions in the reported number of people diagnosed with TB suggest that the number with undiagnosed and untreated TB has grown, resulting first in an increased number of TB deaths and more community transmission of infection, and then, with some time lag, increased numbers of people developing TB.
The number of people provided with treatment for rifampicin-resistant TB and multidrug-resistant TB also declined between 2019 and 2020. The reported number of people started on treatment for rifampicin-resistant TB last year was 161,746 — only about one in three of those in need.
TB spend reduction
The report notes a decline in global spending on essential TB services from $6 billion in 2019 to $5.4 billion in 2021, which is less than half of the global target of $13 billion annually by 2022.
As in the previous 10 years, most of the funding used in 2021 (79 per cent) was from domestic sources.
In other low- and middle-income countries, international donor funding remains crucial. The main source is the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund).
The US government is the largest contributor of funding to the Global Fund and is also the largest bilateral donor. Overall, it contributes nearly half of international donor funding for TB.
TB successes
In the midst of stalling progress, there were some successes.
A total of 26.3 million were treated for TB between 2018 and 2021, still far short of the 40 million target set for 2018—2022 at the UN High-Level Meeting on TB.
Of the 30 high TB burden countries, those with the highest levels of treatment coverage in 2021 included Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Uganda and Zambia.
The number of people provided with TB preventive treatment rebounded in 2021 to close to 2019 levels, but the cumulative total of 12.5 million between 2018 and 2021 was far from the target of 30 million by the end of 2022.
More positively, TB preventive treatment for people living with HIV has far surpassed the global target of 6 million in the period 2018-2022, reaching more than 10 million in only four years.
Seven countries — India, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, the United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe — collectively accounted for 82 per cent of those started on preventive treatment in 2021.
Seven high TB burden countries in the region — Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, the United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia — have reached or surpassed the 2020 milestone of a 20 per cent reduction in the TB incidence rate compared with 2015.
Countries are also increasing the uptake of new tools and guidance recommended by WHO, resulting in early access to TB prevention and care, and better outcomes.
The proportion of people diagnosed with TB who were initially tested with a rapid diagnostic increased from 33 per cent in 2020 to 38 per cent last year.
WHO call to action
The report reiterates its call for countries to put in place urgent measures to restore access to essential TB services. It further calls for increased investment, multisectoral action to address the broader determinants that influence TB epidemics and their socioeconomic impact, as well as the need for new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.
To intensify vaccine development, building on lessons from the pandemic, the WHO will be convening a high-level summit in early 2023.
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
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RESULTS
Welterweight
Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) beat Mostafa Radi (PAL)
(Unanimous points decision)
Catchweight 75kg
Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR) beat Leandro Martins (BRA)
(Second round knockout)
Flyweight (female)
Manon Fiorot (FRA) beat Corinne Laframboise (CAN)
(RSC in third round)
Featherweight
Bogdan Kirilenko (UZB) beat Ahmed Al Darmaki
(Disqualification)
Lightweight
Izzedine Al Derabani (JOR) beat Rey Nacionales (PHI)
(Unanimous points)
Featherweight
Yousef Al Housani (UAE) beat Mohamed Fargan (IND)
(TKO first round)
Catchweight 69kg
Jung Han-gook (KOR) beat Max Lima (BRA)
(First round submission by foot-lock)
Catchweight 71kg
Usman Nurmogamedov (RUS) beat Jerry Kvarnstrom (FIN)
(TKO round 1).
Featherweight title (5 rounds)
Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) v Alexandru Chitoran (ROU)
(TKO round 1).
Lightweight title (5 rounds)
Bruno Machado (BRA) beat Mike Santiago (USA)
(RSC round 2).
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Match info
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Liverpool v Porto, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)
Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
PRESIDENTS CUP
Draw for Presidents Cup fourball matches on Thursday (Internationals first mention). All times UAE:
02.32am (Thursday): Marc Leishman/Joaquin Niemann v Tiger Woods/Justin Thomas
02.47am (Thursday): Adam Hadwin/Im Sung-jae v Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay
03.02am (Thursday): Adam Scott/An Byeong-hun v Bryson DeChambeau/Tony Finau
03.17am (Thursday): Hideki Matsuyama/CT Pan v Webb Simpson/Patrick Reed
03.32am (Thursday): Abraham Ancer/Louis Oosthuizen v Dustin Johnson/Gary Woodland
Arsenal's pre-season fixtures
Thursday Beat Sydney 2-0 in Sydney
Saturday v Western Sydney Wanderers in Sydney
Wednesday v Bayern Munich in Shanghai
July 22 v Chelsea in Beijing
July 29 v Benfica in London
July 30 v Sevilla in London
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
Shooting Ghosts: A U.S. Marine, a Combat Photographer, and Their Journey Back from War by Thomas J. Brennan and Finbarr O’Reilly
