The number of tuberculosis deaths in Europe is rising again after dropping for nearly two decades, the World Health Organization (WHO) alerted on Friday. According to the latest data available, TB killed 27,300 Europeans in 2021 compared to 27,000 a year earlier.
WHO attributed the rise to the coronavirus pandemic, mentioning lockdowns, delayed medical resources, and delayed diagnoses, as well as the spread of a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis.
This was the first time in 20 years the lowered trend was broken, the WHO Europe said. Russia and Ukraine were the two most affected countries, with approximately 4,900 and 3,600 deaths respectively.
Across the 53 countries that make up the WHO’s European region, which includes countries in Central Asia, some 230,000 people contracted TB, a number that continued to fall from last years.
The disease is caused by a bacterium that mostly strikes the lungs. It is transferred through the air by infected people, for example by coughing. It is preventable and curable.
The increase in TB deaths that we are seeing in 2021 is most likely a consequence of delay in, or lack of, TB diagnosis due to disruption to TB services during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased severity of disease and an associated increase in deaths.”
The WHO Europe said.
In addition, the majority of drug-resistant TB also increased in 2021, with one in three cases of the disease immune to rifampicin, the main drug used to treat the disease.
In October, the WHO expressed concern about the rise in recent cases worldwide in 2021, also the first rise in 20 years. Some 10.6 million people developed tuberculosis in 2021, its data showed.
