Mozambique, Angola and Brazil are on the list of 30 countries with the most cases of tuberculosis in 2021, according to a report released Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the disease.

The document, which analyzes the response to the disease in 215 countries or territories in 2021, highlights that Brazil was, among the 30 countries with the most cases, one of the five - Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Uganda, and Zambia - that had the highest levels of treatment coverage.

With regard to all the Portuguese-speaking countries and territories, and from the application that the WHO has made available, with information per country from the global tuberculosis database, it is possible to compare the information on new cases and deaths in 2015 and in 2021.

Brazil is the Portuguese-speaking country or territory where the number of cases, 88.1 thousand, increased the most (+14%) as well as the number of deaths (+11%).

The largest decrease in cases in this set of countries or territories was recorded in Cape Verde, with 185 cases (-45%), while in deaths it reported 101 fewerTP2T.

The second largest decrease in cases was in the Macau Special Administrative Region, with 340 cases (-18%) and 9.5% fewer deaths.

Angola comes next with an incidence of 64,000 cases (-11%) and a 15% drop in reported deaths.

In Mozambique there was no change in the number of registered cases (98.5 thousand) and deaths decreased by 49%.

Guinea-Bissau also reported no change in the number of registered cases (2,500), but deaths increased by 19%.

Sao Tome and Principe recorded 82 cases (-27%), but deaths increased by 6.1%, while in Equatorial Guinea reported cases were 1,900 (-0.4%) and deaths were down 12%.

Timor-Leste had 3,300 recorded cases (-2.4%) and the number of deaths rose slightly (0.78%).

The report presents tuberculosis as the second deadliest infectious disease (after covid-19).

Caused by 'Mycobacterium tuberculosis' bacteria that most often affect the lungs, the disease can spread when people sick with tuberculosis excrete bacteria into the air - for example, by coughing.

Most people who develop the disease are adults and in 2021, men accounted for 56.5%, adult women accounted for 32.5% and children accounted for 11%.

Many new cases are attributable to five risk factors: malnutrition, HIV infection, alcohol use disorders, smoking, and diabetes.

Tuberculosis is preventable and curable. About 85% of people who develop tuberculosis can be successfully treated with a four- to six-month drug regimen.

Treatment has the added benefit of reducing transmission of the infection.

Quoted in the report, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus believes that if the covid-19 pandemic "has taught us anything, it is that with solidarity, determination, innovation, and the equitable use of tools" it is possible to "overcome serious health threats."

"Let's apply these lessons to the fight against tuberculosis. It's time to put an end to this long-standing killer. Working together, we can end tuberculosis," he maintains, quoted by Lusa.

To intensify vaccine development by drawing on the lessons of the covid-19 pandemic, the director of the WHO Global Programme on the Disease, Tereza Kasaeva, believes that the report "provides important new answers and is a decisive argument for the need to join forces and urgently redouble efforts to put the response to tuberculosis on track and achieve previously set targets."

In this sense, Teresa Kasaeva announces that the WHO will convene a high-level UN summit in the first months of 2023.