World leaders are gathering at the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on tuberculosis (TB), an old disease that has been with mankind for thousands of years. It attacks the lungs among other organs, crushing people in their most productive years.
Today, it remains one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases and continues to evolve. A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that 10 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.6 million died from the disease last year. Both the incidence rate and mortality rate are falling annually, at two percent and three percent respectively, but more efforts are needed to end this epidemic.
Fabio Scano, coordinator of disease control at the WHO China Office, said the world has made tremendous progress in TB control over the last 20 years, but the progress so far is not enough if we want to eliminate TB by 2030.
According to the WHO, the 2030 targets set in the End TB Strategy are a 90 percent reduction in TB deaths and an 80 percent reduction in TB incidence, compared with levels in 2015.
As the country with the largest population base, China has an estimated one million new cases of TB every year, more than any country except India. In China, an average of 100 people die of TB every day. On top of that, many of China's TB cases are drug-resistant, meaning victims require longer treatment. That's a big strain for families and the healthcare system.
Several school kids hand out leaflets about TB prevention in Hohhot, capital city of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on World Tuberculosis Day, March 24, 2018. /VCG Photo
Despite the challenges, China's TB incidence rate continues to fall, with an annual drop of around three percent, faster than the world average.
"I think China has a major commitment to the sustainable development goals. The 2030 target [for TB] is one of the sustainable development goals. We will need the commitment to be translated into actions. From now to 2030, the sooner it happens, the better," Scano said.
Indeed, the fight against TB is a race. The disease evolves as new treatments emerge, so countries have to take immediate actions to run faster than the disease.
(Top image: A doctor examines an X-ray of a potential TB victim at a hospital in east China's coastal city of Qingdao. /VCG Photo)