Media: World TB Day 2023, Dr Tariro Makadzange, GPAS Advisory Board Member, for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

To celebrate World Tuberculosis (TB) Day 2023, Dr Tariro Makadzange, a member of our Advisory Board, co-authored a piece for the Tony Blair Institut for Global Change. 

For the first time in 15 years, we are losing ground in the fight against TB. Substantial progress has been made over the past two decades, but TB prevention and treatment was a casualty of the pandemic as resources were redirected towards the COVID-19 response.

If we compare 2021 with 2020:

• 100,000 more people lost their lives to TB – a total of 1.6 million people
• 4.5 per cent more people fell ill with TB – over 10.6 million cases
• An estimated 3.1 per cent more people developed multi-drug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant TB (the first-line treatment for the disease)

How can we make 2023 a turning point in the fight to eradicate TB by 2023? We need a combination of measures that include harnessing the power of new technologies, effective government leadership and a doubling of TB funding. Innovations in TB surveillance and diagnostics (such as genomic-sequencing and bioinformatic technologies), as well as new treatments and therapeutic decision-making tools, have the potential to transform this battle. 

Read the full piece here.