Towards the elimination of tuberculosis in Latin America: opportunities through network cooperation

The latest World Health Organization report highlights the alarming situation of tuberculosis (TB) in Latin America (LA).Between 2020 and 2023, a significant increase in mortality (14%) and a slight decrease in 2024 (13%) (1) was observed in LA.This article aims to analyze this problem and highlight the importance of forming a TB Research Network for the region in order to achieve the WHO objective of ending TB in LA.The countries of LA face multiple challenges that hinder a more accelerated progress towards TB elimination.These include socio-economic, cultural, educational and health service organization factors.Thus, problems such as TB/HIV coinfection, the increase in diabetes, smoking and other chronic diseases are added to factors such as malnutrition, the use of psychoactive substances and limited access to health services.These factors are accentuated by social and economic inequalities in the region, which make it even more difficult to eliminate TB in LA.Another cause for concern is the increase in cases of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), highlighting their heterogeneous distribution, which varied in 2023 between 0-11.9% of all new TB cases, depending on the LA country (1) .These cases represent a critical challenge for health systems and patients due to their long-term treatment, which can exceed 20 months, and the risk of transmission Erica Chimara 1,2