24 March 2022
World Tuberculosis (TB) Day 2022 in the WHO European Region is an opportunity to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, while voicing a warning about the threat of drug-resistant TB. The day will help inspire action to finally end TB.
TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers, with 20 000 people still dying of the disease each year in the Region. The theme of World TB Day 2022 – Invest to End TB. Save Lives – conveys the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments made by global leaders to end TB. This is especially critical in the context of the various crises – the COVID-19 pandemic, military conflicts and environmental disasters – that have put progress towards TB elimination at great risk.
The latest TB surveillance and monitoring report for the Region, which is issued jointly by WHO/Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, will be released on 23 March. It will show that, although the Region has met the 2020 target of reducing TB incidence rates by 25%, it has not managed to reduce TB-related deaths as planned. Instead, TB-related deaths have increased in the Region as an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, every third TB patient has a multidrug-resistant form of the disease for which treatment success rates are suboptimal.
This year’s World TB day will underline the need to ensure equitable access to prevention and care in line with WHO’s drive towards universal health coverage.