Despite highly effective ways to fight TB, why is it still spreading?

Seattle Times editorial by Dr. Karl Reis, UW Medicine

Over the thousands of years that humans have grappled with tuberculosis, we have developed effective ways to prevent, diagnose and cure the disease. Using methods considered primitive by today’s standards, the U.S. reduced the annual incidence of tuberculosis from 40 cases per 100,000 people in the 1950s to 9.4 in 1984. Recently we’ve developed highly effective ways to fight tuberculosis, including rapid diagnostics and improved therapies.

So why is progress against the deadliest disease in human history stagnating, even reversing, even with these new tools?

Experts offer a variety of explanations. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced interruptions in tuberculosis care delivery that led to a post-pandemic uptick in cases. Meanwhile, the HIV pandemic continues to contribute to tuberculosis; in 2023 6% of tuberculosis cases were among people living with HIV. Structural barriers to medication adherence, including catastrophic costs, disease stigma and centralized care, lead to incomplete treatment. But above all, tuberculosis endures because it is easy to overlook — and underfund — a disease that almost exclusively affects people who are incarcerated, unstably housed and those with limited health care resources, however deadly, ancient and treatable it may be. Tuberculosis — a slow-growing, slow-mutating bug — can’t even lay claim to the pandemic prevention funds that so often enable infectious disease control.

Find the full article here: Stubborn spread of this disease illustrates global health challenges | The Seattle Times

Access with UWNetID: Stubborn spread of this disease, Seattle Times, The (WA), December 2, 2024, pA 14