Advancing towards a TB-free world

TUBERCULOSIS (TB) is an ancient and deadly infectious disease that still claims over 1 million lives every year. However, thanks to significant investments, medical advancements, and global political commitment, we now have the tools to prevent TB in at-risk individuals and effectively treat the disease when it is detected early.

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With widespread adoption of these diagnostic and therapeutic tools, we should be making progress towards a world free of TB. Unfortunately, the reality is that the number of new TB cases continues to rise each year. TB remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious disease worldwide, and we are currently far off track from the goal of ending TB as a public health threat by 2035. Clearly, there is still much work to be done in the fight against this deadly disease.

A significant number of people with TB in our communities remain undiagnosed because we rely on individuals developing symptoms ~ such as a persistent cough or night sweats - and seeking care at health facilities for testing. For various reasons, many people with these symptoms are reluctant to seek medical attention, and others may have TB but show no symptoms at all (asymptomatic TB).

In both cases, TB continues to spread within homes, communities, and workplaces, as individuals with undiagnosed TB unknowingly transmit the disease. To break the cycle of transmission, we must take a more proactive approach to TB detection. This means reaching out within communities to identify close contacts of known TB cases and actively screening individuals who may not even be aware they have the disease.