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The Other Pandemic: World Urged to Learn TB Lessons

Agence France-Presse

   PARIS - With the death toll soaring past 300,000 this year and a
   quarter of humanity now infected, the pandemic shows no signs of
   abating as it spreads invisibly throughout vulnerable communities.

   Yet unlike the novel coronavirus, this disease is preventable, curable
   and centuries-old: tuberculosis.

   On the occasion of[1]World TB Day, experts warned Tuesday that the
   sheer number of people impacted by tuberculosis-- which leaves
   survivors with permanent lung damage --means there are additional
   millions globally vulnerable to COVID-19.

   TB is latent in one in four people on Earth and has been around for
   tens of thousands of years. Every year around 10 million people
   areinfected;more than 1.2 million die.

   While TB was declared a global health emergency by the World Health
   Organization back in 1993, it remains the world's number one infectious
   killer.

   The vast majority ofTB deaths occur among poorer populations, meaning
   the disease is largely out of the mind of policymakers despite its
   devastating annual toll.

   Experts say that global health systems could learn a number of lessons
   from the fight against TB, for which a vaccineexistsand a diagnostic
   test takes minutes.

   "We know what works to fight COVID-19 from our experience and the tools
   we have to end TB: infection control, widespread testing, contact
   tracing," said Jose Luis Castro, executive director of The
   International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases.

   "Prevention of any disease requires political will -- and prevention
   remains the biggest tool we have to address COVID-19."

References

   1. https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2020/03/24/default-calendar/world-tuberculosis-day-2020

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