At the current rate of progress, tuberculosis (TB) will only be beaten in 200 years’ time, and not in 15-years-time as previously believed.

The Honourable Nick Herbert, the President of the Global TB Caucus told the Maltese Parliamentary Health Committee that the number of TB cases globally is going down, but not at a sufficient rate.

Nick Herbert, who is member of the House of Commons, said he became interested in the HIV, Aids and tuberculosis issue while he was on a trip in Kenya and other African countries.

“Many believe that tuberculosis is a disease of the past, but after Kenya, I realized that there is a huge mortality rate caused by the disease,” he told the committee who met yesterday afternoon.

Honourable Herbert formed a committee within the House of Commons in the UK. This committee was aimed to focus on tuberculosis.

“Our aim is to raise awareness and a call for action on a disease which still kills 1.5 million people each year.”

“At the current rate of progress, TB will only be beaten in 200 years and not in 15 as many believed.”

He explained that a huge problem with tuberculosis is drug resistance. Tuberculosis is a disease which, unless properly treated, can become drug resistant. Hon. Herbert said that the drugs that fight TB are very expensive and bring along ‘horrible side effects.’

“What many people don’t realize is that tuberculosis is a real threat also to developed countries. The committee on TB in the UK is very successful and that is why we want to persuade other parliaments around the world to set up similar committees.”

The reason behind Hon Herbert’s visit to Malta was based on the Maltese EU Presidency in 2017.

“We want Malta to raise this issue on a European level during its Presidency. We need the EU to do more to fight tuberculosis. Drug resistant tuberculosis is real and it exists in Europe as well,” he added while saying that the migration crisis in Europe has affected the number of cases of this disease. The problem with tuberculosis is that people do not talk about it enough. We speak about Aids, HIV and malaria. But when we talk about tuberculosis, people just assume it’s a thing of the past, that there’s no need to speak about this issue any more.”

He added that this disease can have a huge impact also on the economy. 

Out of the 9.6 million reported cases of tuberculosis, 50% are pulmonary, meaning that they affect the lungs. The other half are extra pulmonary. The latter is dangerous as they are sometimes misdiagnosed as cancer. There were cases when the wrong treatment was given. Only pulmonary TB is infectious.

The Chairman of the Health Committee, MP Etienne Grech asked Hon Herbert if he believes that screening for TB on migrants should be mandatory. Nick Herbert said that this should be the case for migrants which come from high risk countries.

PN MP Claudette Buttigieg and PL MP Deo Debattista were both present for this meeting and are both the signatories for the Barcellona convention and therefore part of the international TB caucus.

Mrs Buttigieg also proposed setting up a cross-party committee on the same lines as is being done on diabetes.

 

 

2014 TB figures

9.6 million reported cases of tuberculosis world wide

140,000 children died

200 years needed to eradicate it