World TB Day 2022: Revamping and Reshaping Global TB Control Programs by Advancing Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic
Eskild Petersen, Seif Al-Abri, Jeremiah Chakaya, Delia Goletti, Liubov Parolina, Christian Wejse, Luchenga Adam Mucheleng’anga, Sulien Al Khalili, Dorothy Yeboah‐Manu, Pascalina Chanda‐Kapata, Mohammad Javad Nasiri, Patrick Lungu, Markus Maeurer, Simon Tiberi, Francine Ntoumi, Giovanni Battista-Migliori, Alimuddin Zumla
Abstract
The World Health Organization (WHO) and STOP TB Partnership theme for World TB Day 24th March, 2022 is “Invest to End TB. Save Lives” (WHO, 2022a). Global political and scientific attention continues to be focussed on the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. There have been over 416 million cases of COVID-19 including 5.8 million deaths reported to the WHO as of 18th February, 2022 WHO, 2022b. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, disruption of TB services has led to an increase in the number of TB cases and TB related deaths worldwide affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people worldwide.