Brazzaville — The COVID-19 pandemic's disruption to health services has seen an increase in tuberculosis deaths in Africa, the first such rise in more than a decade, while the decline in new cases slowed down, an analysis by World Health Organization (WHO) shows.
Around 549 000 deaths were reported in the African region in 2020, an increase of 2000 over 2019. Although cases fell modestly by 2.5% in 2020 from 1.4 million the previous year, there were significant drops in reporting of new infections in countries with high tuberculosis burden including Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe--all of which have grappled with high COVID-19 cases.
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