Within a few decades, the Lancet medical journal’s Commission on Tuberculosis (TB) believes that the disease could be eliminated if proper funding, increased research, and greater accountability mechanisms are provided.
Setting and reaching targets is crucial. The disease is already treatable, preventable and curable, but the Lancet notes it still kills 1.6 million people annually. They estimate that if TB mortality could be reduced, savings could reach three times the costs, but that would require four times the current global research investment.
“There is no room for complacency in our work, and we must act quickly and strategically to save the next generation from TB,” Dr. Eric Goosby, lead Commissioner and UN Special Envoy on TB, said. “In the wake of the UN High-Level Meeting on TB, the Commission views this report as a roadmap to help keep high-burden countries accountable for defeating this deadly disease.”
The Lancet pushes for high-quality diagnostic tests and treatments to be available for all those infected with active TB in high burden countries and universal access to drug susceptibility testing. That said, private health care is another roadblock that many encounter, and the Lancet seeks greater engagement with the private sector to guarantee treatment can happen. Universal health care, they say, will be key. Investments must rise from global donors, certainly, but they also note that affected countries, private-sector entities, and philanthropies must also establish financing strategies.
“While there are many challenges to ending TB, we have the potential right now to address this problem,” Dr. Michael Reid, report co-author from the University of California – San Francisco, said. “We have rapid, sensitive diagnostic tools and the promise of potent TB treatment strategies in the pipeline. In addition, TB control strategies, new health technologies, sustained global economic growth, increased commitment to achieve universal health coverage, and growing political momentum could all make ending TB within a generation more feasible than ever before. With sound science, political will, shared responsibility, TB is a solvable problem.”
The Lancet’s report, published ahead of World TB Day on March 24, also announced the launch of The Lancet TB Observatory, a now-annual report that will evaluate progress toward the 2022 UN HIgh Level Meeting targets.
The World Health Organization has declared TB a public health crisis since 1993. In 2018, a UN High-Level Meeting on TB also set goals to treat 40 million people and prevent 30 million cases by 2022.