Lung disease: Tuberculosis is getting worse, especially in children

Bless you lung disease

Tuberculosis is getting worse, especially in children

Status: 2:09 p.m| Reading time: 2 minutes

X-ray of a lung: Containing tuberculosis becomes a problem

Source: dpa

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The global containment of tuberculosis is not working as well as the World Health Organization had planned. The lung disease particularly affects young people and children. In Ukraine, the threat is increased.

Dhe global community is not on track to meet its self-imposed tuberculosis control goals. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that young people and children in particular are suffering. In 2020, 1.1 million children and adolescents under the age of 15 were infected with tuberculosis (TB), and 226,000 died from it. The WHO had just presented new TB treatment guidelines.

The corona pandemic has halted progress in TB treatment. For the first time in more than a decade, the number of deaths in 2020 increased compared to the previous year, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, from 1.4 million in 2019 to 1.5 million. According to the WHO, 4,100 people worldwide die of tuberculosis every day and 30,000 people are newly infected. Global figures for 2021 were not yet available.

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The conflicts in Ukraine, Africa and the Middle East have reportedly increased the threat of the disease. In Ukraine in particular, many people were suffering from tuberculosis and were now cut off from diagnosis and treatment due to the violence.

In Germany, the number of cases continued to fall in 2021, as reported by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). Almost 4,000 new cases were reported, six percent fewer than the year before.

According to WHO estimates, in 2020, 72 percent of children under the age of five who became infected worldwide were not treated. Two thirds of the little ones who were eligible for preventive treatment had not been treated. The corona pandemic made the situation even worse because clinics offered fewer treatments and people who suspected TB infection reported less often out of concern about corona infection.

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High incidences by Omikron

The infectious disease often affects the lungs, but can also affect other organs. Classic symptoms are persistent cough, night sweats, fever and weight loss.

With the new guidelines, the WHO is pushing for the fastest possible diagnosis and shorter treatment times. This reduces the costs that families have to bear themselves in many countries. Children with mild symptoms should take medication for four months instead of six, and those with tuberculous meningitis for six months instead of twelve.

The WHO also now recommends the new drugs bedaquiline and delamanid for children. They work against mycobacteria that are resistant to the most effective anti-TB drugs to date.