China has made significant progress in tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment over the past decade, with both the incidence and mortality rates of the disease dropping by approximately 30 percent since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, health authorities announced on Thursday.At a press conference held by the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration, officials highlighted that the country's annual decline in TB incidence is twice the global average, while the treatment success rate remains above 90 percent, with mortality sustained at a low level.Liu Qing, deputy director of the administration's Department of Infectious Disease Control, said that moving forward, the administration will prioritize the National Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Plan (2024-2030), enhancing collaboration between disease control agencies, medical institutions and grassroots healthcare providers.
Strategies include expanding proactive screenings to curb transmission, standardizing patient treatment protocols and strengthening financial support policies to alleviate the economic burden on patients.The announcement came days after World Tuberculosis Day on March 24, a date marked by the World Health Organization (WHO) to rally global action against the disease.
In its 2024 Global Tuberculosis Report, the WHO noted that TB remains one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases, with 10.8 million new cases and 1.25 million deaths recorded in 2023.
However, funding for TB services has declined sharply, dropping from $6.8 billion in 2019 to $5.7 billion in 2023 & just 26 percent of the global target.