Originally Posted By r0bo⏩

Originally Posted By steeler505⏩

Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but TB bacteria can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. Not everyone infected with TB bacteria becomes sick. As a result, two TB-related conditions exist: latent TB infection (LTBI) and TB disease. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal.

In 2018, 1.7 billion people were infected by TB bacteria — roughly 23% of the world’s population. TB is the leading infectious disease killer in the world, claiming 1.5 million lives each year.

Of the 10 million individuals who became ill with TB in 2018, approximately three million were “missed” by health systems and do not get the care they need, allowing the disease to continue to be transmitted.

Because the reach of TB is so broad, to effectively and fully address MDR-TB in the U.S., MDR-TB must be addressed globally in the places hardest hit. TB anywhere is TB everywhere – it spreads from person to person and doesn’t respect borders. Recent models show that unless we scale up efforts to address this growing threat, the number of people dying from drug-resistant TB will nearly double every 5 years.

In 2018, at the first ever UN high-level meeting on tuberculosis, global financing targets agreed on by all member states were set for the first time.4 The targets are to mobilise at least US$13 billion per year by 2022 for spending on tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis, and treatment by national governments (including funding provided as international development assistance for health [DAH]) and an additional $2 billion per year for tuberculosis research in the 5 years from 2018 to 2022.

The total cumulative spending on COVID-19 vaccines through 2025 is projected to be $157 billion.

Vaccine nationalism could lead to the unequal allocation of COVID-19 vaccines and cost the global economy up to $1.2 trillion a year in GDP terms. Even if some countries manage to immunise their populations against the virus, as long as the virus is not under control in all regions of the world, there will continue to be a global economic cost associated with COVID-19.

Even if nationalistic behaviour is inevitable, there are economic incentives to providing access to vaccines across the globe. Based on estimates by Oxfam International in 2020, it would cost $25 billion to supply lower-income countries with vaccines. The US, the UK, the EU and other high-income countries combined could lose about $119 billion a year if the poorest countries are denied a supply. If these high-income countries paid for the supply of vaccines, there could be a benefit-to-cost ratio of 4.8 to 1. For every $1 spent, high-income countries would get back about $4.80.

If the poorest countries cannot access vaccines, the world could still lose about £153 billion a year in GDP. All high-income countries, as well as countries such as India, China and Russia, would still incur together an estimated GDP loss of about $119 billion a year, or approximately $10 billion a month. The EU would lose about $40 billion a year, the US $16 billion and the UK between $2 billion and $10 billion.