The Seattle Times, "Ukraine, Sudan conflicts fuel alarming surge in tuberculosis"

Below is an excerpt, read the full article by Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press, Ukraine, Sudan conflicts fuel alarming surge in tuberculosis | The Seattle Times

Tuberculosis is the biggest infectious disease killer in the world today, taking the lives of around 4,400 people every day around the world including 700 children, Dr. Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership, said ahead of [a] hearing to prepare for a high-level meeting on Sept. 22 during the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

The U.N. deputy secretary-general said global response efforts to tuberculosis have saved 74 million lives since 2000, but over 10.5 million people got the disease and an estimated 6.1 million died in 2021, and it is now the leading cause of death for people with HIV.

Before COVID, which like TB is transmitted through the air, “we didn’t see very dramatic cases of TB,” [Ditiu] said, “but after COVID we saw a type of TB that we saw in … movies in which people spit blood and they are very weak, and so on.”

Ukraine has the highest number of estimated people with TB in the European region – 34,000 – and also a high number with drug-resistant TB, she told a news conference on Thursday.

“It’s remarkable, the fact that the Ukrainian people are actually showing an amazing resilience in doing their best to maintain the services for TB,” Ditiu said. “But obviously a lot of people left the country.”

Read the full article by Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press, Ukraine, Sudan conflicts fuel alarming surge in tuberculosis | The Seattle Times