TB has just got even deadlier

Reviewing an x-ray

As a Daughter of the Cross, missioned to have a 'special preference to those who are poorest' I believe that no matter where people live, they should have access to health services, education, and economic opportunities which allow them to lift themselves from extreme poverty.

However in 2015, 19.4 million children didn't receive basic vaccines, 45% of all child deaths were caused by under nutrition, and 1.8 million people died from TB, an increase of 20% in reported numbers from 2014. Under nutrition, vaccine preventable diseases and TB are all conditions which are either preventable or treatable, and we still have a long way to go to ensure equitable access to health services to reach the health targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers was created by Pope John Paul II in 1985 to coordinate and promote the health care work undertaken by the Church around the world and monitor national and international health care efforts to determine their pastoral repercussions for the Church. Former President, Archbishop Zimowski (who died in July of this year) once said that the Catholic Church is a "voice that can from many places have the leverage to achieve the common good and justice in the social and health care field."

At the start of a Global Meeting on tuberculosis in Rome in 2014 Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski said: "it has been rightly observed that Tuberculosis is a disease that affects most the poorest, whether in low- income countries or in high-income settings".

The Archbishop would have been dismayed by new figures released by the World Health Organization this month which show that tuberculosis, the world's leading infectious killer, just got deadlier. There were an estimated 10.4 million new TB cases and 1.8 million TB deaths in 2015. This is a 20% revision upwards from last year's figures, showing that the TB epidemic is a bigger problem than we thought. With increasing antimicrobial resistance (including resistance to the antibiotics used to treat TB), new vaccines, drugs and tools for diagnosing TB are urgently needed. (At least US$ 2 billion per year is needed for TB research and development yet funding during the decade 2005-2014 never exceeded US$ 0.7 billion per year). The report highlights that, 'despite some progress in the pipeline for new diagnostics, drugs and regimens, and vaccines, TB research and development remains severely under funded' and regrets that 'Global actions and investments fall short of those needed to end the global TB epidemic'.

Archbishop Zimowski said that: "combating this killer disease (tuberculosis) requires the concerted efforts of not only the policy makers and the medical world, but also engagement with civil society organizations and communities to create working partnerships." Clearly increased political will is needed to deal with this disease. If we are going to end the TB epidemic in our lifetimes, we need new drugs, vaccines and tools to be developed.

In the light of the UN report, the UN's Stop TB Partnership is calling for an urgent High Level Meeting at the United Nations in order to develop a global response to deal with this global health threat. It is to be hoped that Prime Minister Theresa May will push for and attend such a meeting.