Lessons can be learnt from Covid response to fight resurgence in tuberculosis

Covid has contributed to a rise in TB deaths. But while the pandemic has undermined so many aspects of global health management, it has shown that a better, alternative approach can exist, writes Samuel Lovett

An tuberculosis patient looks on while another one coughs on a bed in a ward of the TB Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, India (AFP via Getty Images)

It’s both alarming and tragic, but should come as no surprise. Global deaths from tuberculosis have risen for the first time in more than a decade. After the pandemic hit - placing much of the world on pause - health services tackling other infectious diseases were always going to suffer.

Amid the need to respond rapidly to Covid-19, resources were funnelled away from vital testing and surveillance networks in some of the poorest countries on the planet. The delivery of drugs, healthcare equipment and vaccines was disrupted and delayed. And, caught in one lockdown after another, those ill with life-threatening conditions struggled to access local services and treatment.

The impact on the global management of TB has been “particularly severe,” according to a new report from the World Health Organisation. Director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the findings of the research “confirms our fears” that the Covid pandemic “could start to unravel years of progress against tuberculosis”.