The World Health Organization said global spending on Tuberculosis diagnostics, treatments and prevention in 2020 was less than half of the target of $13 billion annually by 2022 after Covid set back years of progress

The world is spending nowhere near enough to revive the fight against tuberculosis after the Covid-19 crisis set back years of progress, the WHO said Monday.

Ahead of World Tuberculosis Day on Thursday, the World Health Organization said global spending on TB diagnostics, treatments and prevention in 2020 was less than half of the target of $13 billion annually by 2022.

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacteria that most often affects the lungs. Like Covid, it is transmitted via the air by infected people, for example by coughing.

The coronavirus pandemic disrupted access to TB services, the WHO said.

TB deaths increased in 2020 for the first time in more than a decade, and the situation "continues to look bleak", said Tereza Kasaeva, director of the WHO's global TB programme.

In 2020, the first full year of the Covid pandemic, an estimated 63 percent of under-15s with TB were not reached with or not officially reported to have accessed life-saving TB diagnosis and treatment services.But the massive investment into Covid-19 research, which resulted in safe and effective vaccines and treatments, could serve as an inspiration for the fight against TB, said the WHO.

Global spending on tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment and prevention services fell from $5.8 billion in 2019 to $5.3 billion a year later, the report found.

"Urgent investments are needed to develop and expand access to the most innovative services and tools to prevent, detect and treat TB that could save millions of lives each year, narrow inequities and avert huge economic losses," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.