European political leadership needed to counter world’s most deadly infectious disease
Today’s publication of the WHO Global TB report underlines the threat posed to Europe by the world’s most deadly infectious disease. Despite the WHO European region having the world’s highest proportion of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) among new and previously treated cases, the largest international financer in the fight against the epidemic is gradually turning its resources away from the region, leaving national governments and the EU in desperate need of a political strategy to fill the gap.
TB: the world’s leading infectious killer
The 2015 WHO report confirms TB’s unwelcome distinction as the world’s single most deadly infectious disease. In 2014 alone, the epidemic killed 1.5 million people worldwide, well ahead of the 1.2 million deaths caused by HIV. A far cry from the image of a disease consigned to the past, TB remains a painful reality for millions across the world and in Europe. Indeed, improved diagnosis is finally unveiling the full scale of the damage with 9.6 million new cases recorded in 2014, an increase on the previous years’ figures despite 37% of cases remaining undiagnosed or unreported. And with a funding gap of US$1.4 billion for the implementation of existing interventions in 2015, the road to ending TB remains long and treacherous.
Europe’s drug-resistant shadow
Today’s report is also a stark reminder that TB remains a major cross-border health threat within Europe’s very midst. Nowhere was multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) more prevalent among new and previously treated cases in 2014 than in the WHO European region. This particularly dangerous form of the disease requires lengthy and costly treatment and was responsible for 190,000 deaths worldwide in 2014 alone. Worse still, rates of extensively drug resistant forms of TB were also highest in the European region with Belarus, Georgia and even EU Member States Latvia and Lithuania among the worst-affected countries. “Given this alarming situation, it is unacceptable that the new European Commission has allowed public health issues, and TB in particular, to slip down the political agenda” says Fanny Voitzwinkler, Head of the EU office of Global Health Advocates and coordinator of the TB Europe Coalition – “Political cooperation to tackle cross-border health threats in the EU and its Eastern neighbourhood is urgently needed, especially in the context of the current migration crisis.”
Ensuring transition towards a TB-free future
To compound this alarming situation, the European Commission has been pushing for a withdrawal of funding from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria to the Middle Income Countries of the European region, leaving only limited domestic resources to bridge the gap. “This report shows Europe is at a crossroads in the fight against TB” says Andrey Klepikov, Director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Ukraine and member of the TB Europe Coalition “with MDR-TB such a major health threat in our region, the Global Fund, the EU institutions, governments and civil society of affected countries must unite their forces now to develop sustainable strategies capable of ensuring a safe transition as international donor funding begins to leave.” Political will at regional, national and local levels will be key to address this cross-border health threat if we are not to scale back on progresses made to date.
Source: TB Europe Coalition