Tuberculosis management

• The new method combines a one-step PCR test, developed by the Group's Adaltis subsidiary, with testing on the NATlab instrument using the new isothermal RCA process developed by the Group's Ador Diagnostics associate company.
• The PCR test diagnoses if someone is infected with TB and, if they test positive, the NATlab system is used to identify the strain of TB and its resistance to antibiotics (including rifampicin, isoniazid and quinolones).
• Thanks to the advances in molecular diagnostics, we are entering a new era in the fight against infectious diseases.
• The Stop TB Partnership was established in 2001 to eliminate tuberculosis as a public health problem.

• Regional TB mortality has gone down, declining by 9.4% between 2018 and 2019.
• This is notably higher than the average global decline in TB mortality (3.7%) and enough to have reached the End TB Strategy milestone of a 35% reduction by 2020 compared to 2015.
• However, TB is second only to COVID-19 as an infectious disease that kills, and drug resistance is a major concern.
• There are also worrying indications that the COVID-19 pandemic may stall progress or cause significant setbacks in the fight against TB.

The uneven burden of TB

• In 2019, there were an estimated 20000 TB deaths in the WHO European Region equivalent to 2.2 deaths per 100000 people, and some 3560 TB deaths occurred in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA), equal to 0.7 deaths per 100000.
• For 2019, in the European Region as a whole, there were some 216000 new TB diagnoses, corresponding to 23.2 cases per 100000.
• Twenty-nine countries in the EU/EEA reported a total of 47504 TB cases, which equates to a rate of 9.2 cases per 100000.
• Across the EU/EEA, most country-specific rates continue to decline; however, the EU/EEA as a whole is currently not on track to reach the goal of ending TB by 2030.
• TB is far from being evenly distributed in the European Region.

COVID-19’s impact on TB

• The decrease in TB burden put the Region on course to reach the End TB Strategy milestone for 2020 and the regional action plan target for reduction of the TB incidence rate.
• Negative impacts have already been observed in TB service delivery and notifications in high-burden countries, this is believed to indicate that fewer people have been tested, meaning that people with undiagnosed TB are not getting the treatment they need and run the risk of infecting others.
• The findings of an ongoing assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on TB services and spread in the European Region, will be ready in Spring 2021.

Treatment outcomes remain suboptimal

• Despite universal access to quality-assured anti-TB drugs, treatment outcomes in the Region remain suboptimal.
• Treatment success in the EU/EEA was lower still, with only 64% of all TB cases notified in 2018 being reported as having completed their treatment successfully.
• Across the Region, treatment outcomes for MDR-TB remain suboptimal.
• Unsuccessful treatment is one of the factors that drives resistance, often due to lack of effective TB medicines in treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB, and low adherence to therapy.
• In the European Region, only 52% of coinfected patients complete TB treatment successfully, far below the global rate of 76%.

TB at centre of health agendas

• Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety stated: The decline of tuberculosis in recent years is positive news.
• But TB continues to be a threat to some regions in the EU and continues to affect the most vulnerable in our society.
• Together with our agencies, the Commission is committed to playing its part to eliminate TB through, in part, funding, research and the fight against antimicrobial resistance.
• However, despite this progress, the EU/EEA is not currently on track to reach the goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030.

Read the annual surveillance report

Publication

Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring in Europe 2021 –2019 data

Notes to editors

• Tell their healthcare provider right away if they become pregnant or think they are pregnant during treatment with Cotellic.
• Patients should not breastfeed during treatment with Cotellic and for two weeks after the final dose of Cotellic.
• The most common side effects of Cotellic include:
  A patients healthcare provider will do blood tests during treatment with Cotellic.
• A patients healthcare provider should do blood tests to check their kidney function before they start taking Zelboraf and during treatment.

• TB Alliance will make use of InveniAIs AI and machine learning platform, AlphaMeld, to identify and accelerate transformative therapies for the management, treatment, and cure of TB, which remains the worlds top infectious disease killer.
• Globally, about 10 million people develop active TB each year and 1.5 million die from their disease.
• TB bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to conventional six-month antibiotic treatments, with an estimated 500,000 people developing drug-resistant forms of TB each year.
• Our mission is to develop and deliver new TB treatments that address the significant unmet needs that TB patients face today, said Nader Fotouhi, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, TB Alliance.