Tuberculosis is considered a disease of the past by many, but before Covid-19 it was the biggest infectious disease killer in the world – and is set to reclaim that title.

Health experts have warned Australia needs to do more to combat the disease, with drug-resistant forms appearing very close to the country’s borders.

In 2020 there were 9.9million cases of TB worldwide, with 1.5million of them deadly, up from 1.4million in 2019 and breaking a decade long trend of declining deaths.

The Australian government has been urged to double the investment in fighting the disease, with more than two-thirds of the world’s cases appearing in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tuberculosis is considered by many a disease of the past but it is one of the most common infectious diseases (stock image) 

Professor Brendan Crabb (pictured) has urged the government to increase funding to fight TB  

Dangerous drug-resistant variants are also more common in this region with Daru, and island of Papua New Guinea just off the tip of Cape York, having one of the highest rates in the world. 

Professor Brendan Crabb, director of the Burnet Institute and chair of Pacific Friends of Global Health, said the Australian government should intensify efforts in the fight against TB. 

‘It’s a bacteria that we struggle to find solutions to, medicines that work, vaccines that work, and so on,’ Professor Crabb told Radio National on Thursday morning.

‘PNG is just super struggling from a health system point-of-view, and tuberculosis is a complex technical problem,’ he said.

‘It’s hard to deliver the medicines that we have, and also the social determinants to decent housing and decent nutrition, impact incredibly on TB.’

Professor Crabb and global aid non-profit Results International are calling on the Australian government to double the investment in fighting the disease to $450million. 

‘Tuberculosis is probably PNG’s biggest health problem … biggest problem full stop [and] it’s very much in Australia’s wheelhouse to try to do something about it.’ 

Vaccines for tuberculosis exist but getting them to developing countries where they are needed on a large scale is challenging (file image) 

The government previously allocated $242million in 2019 but Professor Crabb said the increase would give the region a ‘fighting chance’ at controlling the disease. 

Vaccines and other treatments exist but getting them to where they are needed on a large scale, especially in developing countries, is challenging. 

Results was responsible for handling more than three-quarters of the global funding pledged to fight TB in 2020. 

In countries where they have focused deaths had been reduced by a third – with almost 5million people treated and an 85 per cent success rate. 

Professor Crabb said investing more in fighting TB now would prevent the problem surging and the cost blowing out into the trillions. 

‘We’ve been set back ten years… that’s a trillion-dollar problem, $3trillion problem if it’s set back 15 years. We just can’t afford the health and economic impact of that.’