Taking forward the World TB Day 2016 theme “Unite to End Tuberculosis” for the WHO Africa Region (original) (raw)

International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2016

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a 'global emergency' with an estimated 9.6 million new TB cases worldwide reported in 2014. Of these 28% were in the WHO Africa Region where the annual case detection rate was 281 per 100,000 population -more than double the global average of 133 per 100,000. Of the 9.6 million people who developed TB, an estimated 1.2 million (12%) were HIV-positive and the African Region accounted for 74% of these cases. Three million people with TB remain undiagnosed and untreated. Globally, an estimated 480,000 had multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Whilst from Africa, only South Africa has reported high prevalence of MDR-TB, it is likely that all of sub-Saharan Africa has unreported high load of drug resistant TB. Tragically, in 2014 only 48 percent of individuals diagnosed with MDR-TB had successful treatment and estimated 190,000 people died of MDR-TB. Of the global TB funding gap of US$ 0.8 billion, the largest funding gap was in the African Region, amounting to US$ 0.4 billion in 2015. The MDR-TB pandemic in particular now threatens to devastate entire regions and may fundamentally alter the life expectancy and demographic profile of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The Theme designated for this year's World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, March 24(th) 2016, is 'Unite to End TB. From the Africa Region, there is an urgent need to seriously address the political, economic and social factors, which influence host-Mycobacterium tuberculosis interactions and result in disease. We discuss recent political and funder initiatives which provide renewed hope for alleviating Africa's TB and TB/HIV problems.

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