A woman looking at a lungs' X-ray/ HANDOUTAccording to WHO’s report 'The Global Tuberculosis Report 2024', the target is reductions of 75 percent of the number of deaths caused by TB and 50 per cent of the TB incidence rate.
The report stated that globally in 2023, TB caused an estimated 1.25 million deaths, including 1.09 million among HIV-negative people and 161 000 among people with HIV.
The groups said they will adopt the End TB Strategy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end the global TB epidemic.
The 2030 targets of the End TB Strategy are a 90 per cent reduction in the number of deaths caused by TB and an 80 percent reduction in the TB incidence rate, compared with levels in 2015.
The commitments have been reaffirmed at two UN high-level meetings on TB, held in 2018 and 2023.
WHO said they are reinforced with additional targets related to funding, the provision of treatment to people with TB disease or TB infection, and the availability of new TB vaccines.
As of August 2024, there were 29 drugs for the treatment of TB disease in Phase I, Phase II, or Phase III trials, an increase from eight drugs in 2015.
WHO reaffirmed that ending TB remains a distant goal, but after serious setbacks during the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021), there are several positive trends.
The organisation said the global rise in the number of people falling ill with TB each year has slowed and started to stabilise and the global number of people dying from TB each year continues to fall.
It added that the WHO African and European regions have made good progress towards the 2025 milestones of the End TB Strategy.
WHO, however, noted that the globally reported number of people newly diagnosed with TB reached a new high in 2023, but the treatment success rate for people with drug-susceptible TB has been sustained at a high level and continues to improve for people with drug-resistant TB.
WHO said the coverage of TB preventive treatment has been sustained for people living with HIV and continues to improve for household contacts of people diagnosed with TB.