Brussels, 17/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - Tuberculosis is continuing to decline in the European Union according to the most recent statistics jointly published by the European Centre for Disease Control and the European Bureau of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
An estimated 360,000 Europeans developed tuberculosis (TB) in 2013, about 6% fewer cases compared to 2012. This confirms the sustained decline over the last decade, despite experts describing this decline as too low. The experts are also concerned by the rates of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB. “At the current pace of an annual 6% decline, the EU/EEA will only be free of tuberculosis in the next century. In order to achieve elimination by 2050 for example, we would have to cut down cases at least twice as fast”, says ECDC Director Marc Sprenger. World TB Day is celebrated on 24 March each year around the world.
Despite historically low numbers and a significant decline over the last ten years, the EU countries are not all progressing in the same way and face specific challenges in their TB control efforts. Sprenger indicated that,“Our data show a Europe in need of tailored interventions which target each country's settings”. In most low- incidence countries, rates are stable or going down only very slowly and the majority of patients are of foreign origin. Countries with high incidence overall face higher rates of re-infection and report many more MDR TB cases.
Rates of multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB - tuberculosis which resists the two frontline medicines used in the treatment of smear-positive cases of pulmonary tuberculosis - are actually increasing, making Europe the region with the most cases in the world, particularly in the so-called 18 high-priority countries. Only 50% of MDR TB patients are detected and half of them successfully cured, which calls for considerable scaling up access to safe, rational and efficient new TB drugs, as well as innovations on rapid diagnosis of MDR TB, explained Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe. In this connection she referred to the new global End-TB Strategy and the European Consolidated Action Plan (2011-2015) to detect and treat patients with drug resistant forms of TB.
The directors of both the ECDC and European Bureau of WHO agree that the goal to eliminate TB depends on a more efficient use of current tools and interventions, to be complemented by new and more effective ones. The first Ministerial Conference on TB and MDR TB will be held in Riga, Latvia, on 30-31 March 2015 under the Latvian EU Council Presidency as an opportunity to bridge progress in different parts of Europe and work towards one elimination goal. (Isabelle Lamberty)