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Drug firms should not forget about tackling TB SCMP Editorial There is only one licensed tuberculosis vaccine, a treatment commonly known as BCG that is a century old this year and is effective only in infants. Photo: Shutterstock
A world longing to get back to business is obviously focused on the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines. But as damaging to lives and economies as the pandemic is, there are other diseases that wreak as devastating a death toll annually that we must not lose sight of.
There is no overall protection against what scientists call the big three , malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/Aids, which each year kill an estimated 2.7 million people. The extraordinary disruption to health care systems caused by the coronavirus risks dramatically raising the number of deaths from these diseases unless there is greater global financial and political will.