WHO / GLOBAL TUBERCULOSIS REPORT

STORY: WHO / GLOBAL TUBERCULOSIS REPORT
TRT: 4:54
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 27 OCTOBER 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE


SHOTLIST:

FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior WHO Headquarters

27 OCTOBER 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Tereza Kasaeva, Director, Global Tuberculosis Programme, WHO:
“We are releasing Global Tuberculosis Report this year with the information from more than 200 countries and with very concerning and unfortunate messages to the world and to the community. According to our new report, 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis. Its increase in compare with the last year is at least 4.5 percent. It's significant. 1.6 million people died from tuberculosis and this exactly, unfortunately, was more than 4000 deaths per day.”
3. Close up, copy of the report
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Tereza Kasaeva, Director, Global Tuberculosis Programme, WHO:
“The number of deaths are gradually increasing. It's extremely concerning. These trends should be stopped. It is a result of the limited access to treatment, to diagnostics, to the testing in other words and continued transmission, people are unfortunately dying and at least 50 percent of them, in absence of access, timely access to the lifesaving treatment.”
5. Close up, copy of the report
6. Med shot, Tereza Kasaeva talks
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tereza Kasaeva, Director, Global Tuberculosis Programme, WHO:
“COVID 19 pandemic, which is ongoing, is responsible for this sobering situation with the tuberculosis epidemics. Due to its impact immediately into 2020, we see a sharp drops in TB notification, notifications means people were not diagnosed with TB, services were not accessible, available and this was a really, very concerning drop. 20 percent of the services globally on average were not reachable. But if we look from country to country, especially in the high burden countries, some of the countries even more than 40 percent of the services were closed. Delayed access, interruptions in the treatment and these all resulted in the worsening global TB situation and situation in the high TB burden countries.”
8. Close up, copy of the report
9. Med shot, Tereza Kasaeva shows the report
10. Med shot, Tereza Kasaeva talks
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Tereza Kasaeva, Director, Global Tuberculosis Programme, WHO:
“Drug resistant tuberculosis, the most severe form of tuberculosis and unfortunately at this time we see also increase for the first time over many years, the number of drug resistant TB cases. This dangerous trend should be again stopped through, through provision of the treatment using WHO recommendations; fully oral, injectable-free, home-based treatment, three, four times shorter as it was even four years ago, and with much better treatment outcomes and much safer. This is the way out from this situation. So it's a disease of the poorest people and equity, stigma and discrimination are huge issues for this this kind of situation and TB funding was limited even before COVID 19 pandemic.”
12. Close up, copy of the report
13. Med shot, Tereza Kasaeva shows the report
14. Close up, copy of the report
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Tereza Kasaeva, Director, Global Tuberculosis Programme, WHO:
“We have less than 40 percent of the funding we need for the comprehensive TB response. WHO, together with the partners and civil society, is strongly requested for urgent actions and provision access to essential health care services, community based, primary health care based services. In other words, access to testing of tuberculosis and this treatment according to WHO latest guidelines. TB Prevention is another important task. We should protect those who are vulnerable from the development of the disease. We should at least increase two, three times to the current level of the financing. We are poorly, chronically underfunded. I mean, TB programs, TB services and the needs of most vulnerable and poorest should be addressed urgently.”
16. Close up, copy of the report
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Tereza Kasaeva, Director, Global Tuberculosis Programme, WHO:
“We should pay attention to the multisectoral measures addressing social determinants such as poverty, undernutrition, alcohol use, tobacco smoking and other well-known determinants of tuberculosis. Investments, access to services and the latest tools are critical and joint efforts of the WTO communities, including civil society and partners.”

FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

18. Wide shot, exterior WHO Headquarters

STORYLINE:

An estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2021, an increase of 4.5 percent from 2020, and 1.6 million people died from TB (including 187 000 among HIV positive people), according to the World Health Organization’s 2022 Global TB report.

The burden of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) also increased by 3percent between 2020 and 2021, with 450 000 new cases of rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB) in 2021.This is the first time in many years an increase has been reported in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug resistant TB. TB services are among many others disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, but its impact on the TB response has been particularly severe. Ongoing conflicts across Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East have further exacerbated the situation for vulnerable populations.

“If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that with solidarity, determination, innovation and the equitable use of tools, we can overcome severe health threats. Let’s apply those lessons to tuberculosis. It is time to put a stop to this long-time killer. Working together, we can end TB,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

Continued challenges with providing and accessing essential TB services have meant that many people with TB were not diagnosed and treated. The reported number of people newly diagnosed with TB fell from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million in 2020. There was a partial recovery to 6.4 million in 2021, but this was still well below pre-pandemic levels.

Reductions in the reported number of people diagnosed with TB suggest that the number of people with undiagnosed and untreated TB has grown, resulting first in an increased number of TB deaths and more community transmission of infection and then, with some lag-time, increased numbers of people developing TB.

The number of people provided with treatment for RR-TB and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) has also declined between 2019 and 2020. The reported number of people started on treatment for RR-TB in 2021 was 161 746, only about one in three of those in need.

The report notes a decline in global spending on essential TB services from US$6 billion in 2019 to US$5.4 billion in 2021, which is less than half of the global target of US$13 billion annually by 2022. As in the previous 10 years, most of the funding used in 2021 (79percent) was from domestic sources. In other low- and middle-income countries, international donor funding remains crucial. The main source is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund). The United States Government is the largest contributor of funding to the Global Fund and is also the largest bilateral donor; overall, it contributes close to 50percent of international donor funding for TB.