After two decades of steady decline, TB deaths are rising again in Europewarned today World Health Organization (WHO).

According to the latest available data, this lung disease claimed the lives of 27,300 Europeans in 2021, up from 27,000 the previous year. With 4,900 and 3,600 deaths respectively, Russia and Ukraine are estimated to be the most affected countries.

According to WHO, this number is growing due to the softening of diagnoses during the quarantine imposed due to Covid-19, as well as due to the spread of tuberculosis resistant to the antibiotic prescribed against the disease.

For the first time in 20 years, the downward trend has been reversed, according to the WHO.

The role of the pandemic

In the 53 countries of the WHO European Area, which also covers Central Asia, about 230,000 people have become ill with tuberculosis, which is caused by a bacterium that mainly affects the lungs, a total that remains lower than in previous years.

“The increase in TB deaths that we are seeing in 2021 is most likely due to delayed or non-existent TB diagnoses due to service issues (…) during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the French agency WHO Europe explained.

In addition, the prevalence of drug-resistant TB has increased significantly, with one in three cases in 2021 being rifampicin-resistant TB.

Globally, WHO already expressed concern in October about the increase, again for the first time in more than 20 years, in new cases of tuberculosis in 2021 in the world.

About 10.6 million people around the world fell ill with the disease this year, according to the data.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}