100 Filipinos die daily from Tuberculosis — WHO

Around 100 Filipinos die of tuberculosis (TB) daily, according to the Global tuberculosis Report 2024 of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The report also said that the Philippines remains one of the eight countries ranked with the most cases of tuberculosis with 739,000 cases recorded every year.

“Hundred people die per day, and that is 38,000 deaths every year,” Tom Hiatt, WHO Technical Officer on Tuberculosis highlighted during the Media Orientation on Tuberculosis.

He said, in fact, Philippines is among top five countries accounted for 56% in the global total of 10.8 million.

• India (26%) 
• Indonesia (10%) 
• China (6.8%) 
• Philippines (6.8%) 
• Pakistan (6.3%)

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Hiatt said there had been a global rise in the number of people falling ill with TB (incident cases) that started when the pandemic slowed and started to stabilize.

WHO recorded 10.8 million (95% uncertainty interval [Ul]: 10.1-11.7 million) in 2023, a small increase from 10.7 million in 2022 although still much higher than 10.4 million in 2021 and 10.1 million in 2020.

"Most of the global increase in incident cases between 2022 and 2023 reflects population growth," it said, noting that the TB incidence rate or the new cases per 100,000 population in 2023 was 134, which is slightly higher compared to 2022 (125-145).

In the global perspective, a total of 8.2 million people were reported as newly diagnosed with TB in 2023, up from 7.5 million in 2022 and 7.1 million in 2019 and far above the levels of 5.8 million in 2020 and 6.4 million in 2021.

“Those newly diagnosed in 2022 and 2023 probably included a sizeable backlog of people who developed TB in previous years, but whose diagnosis and treatment was delayed by COVID-related disruptions,” the report noted.

It added that the global gap between the estimated number of people developing TB (incident cases) and the reported number of people newly diagnosed with TB (notified cases) narrowed to a best estimate of 2.7 million in 2023, “down from about 4 million in both 2020 and 2021 and below the pre-pandemic level of 3.2 million in 2019.”

Early screening

The Department of Health (DOH), meanwhile, said it is continuously working on the developments on the early screening, treatment, prevention, health system support as well as information dissemination.

Last year, DOH Secretary Ted Herbosa said he is hoping that the Philippines will be removed from the top 10 list of countries with the highest number of tuberculosis cases by the end of his term.

Tuberculosis is one of the priority health outcomes of the health department— aiming to have a zero TB case mortatality rate  from 34 per 100,000 population and HIV.

“While we are improving slightly we are still far from our target to give people preventive treatment. We are still achieving our performance,” said Dr. Charisse Malbacias, of the DOH Disease Prevention and Control Bureau.

She also noted that the DOH is in works for the TB National Strategic Plan for 2025-2030.

Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide, which often affects the lungs and is spread through the air when infected people cough, sneeze, or spit. Common symptoms of tuberculosis include prolonged cough, chest pain, fatigue, fever, and weight loss.

--VAL, GMA Integrated News