The nation’s efforts to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) is progressing despite global trends, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday, after the WHO reported that TB resurged to overtake COVID-19 as the leading infectious disease killer last year.
In a report released on Tuesday, the global health body said that approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB last year, the most since the organization began global monitoring of the disease in 1995.
Last year, 1.25 million TB-related deaths were reported, down from 1.32 million the previous year, while the number of people falling ill from the disease rose to 10.8 million, it said.
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That increase combined with underfunding for treatment, prevention and research indicate that the disease remains a global health crisis, the WHO said.
The COVID-19 pandemic stretched the healthcare systems in many nations to the breaking point and disrupted their ability to track or treat people with TB, Lo told reporters in Taipei.
Under-resourced nations were the hit the hardest by the pandemic, as TB screening efforts were compromised or ceased altogether, he said.
Taiwan was unaffected, as the nation’s programs for controlling TB operated normally throughout the pandemic, he said.
While people were less willing to get TB checkups during the height of the pandemic, that issue largely corrected itself last year, Lo said.
Taiwan’s TB prevalence rate was 28.2 cases per 100,000 people, while the CDC aims to reduce the ratio to 10 cases per 100,000 by 2030, he said.
The agency is focused on identifying asymptomatic TB cases by monitoring high-risk groups, including people in care facilities, immunocompromised people and those residing in rural areas, he said.
Migrant workers are screened for TB due to the prevalence of drug-resistant strains in nations in the region, but imported cases have been relatively uncommon, he said.
Local TB activity is under steady control, as the government continues to work toward eliminating the disease in the country, he added.
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