World Tuberculosis Day: 10 Facts About TB

About one third of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis (TB) bacteria. Only a small proportion of those infected will become sick with TB. People with weakened immune systems have a much greater risk of falling ill from TB. A person living with HIV is about 26 to 31 times more likely to develop active TB.

10 Facts about Tuberculosis:

1. In 2015, there were an estimated 10.4 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. Six countries accounted for 60% of the total, with India leading the count, followed by Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa. But TB is curable and preventable.

2 . A total of 1.8 million people died from TB in 2015 (including 0.4 million people with HIV). TB was 1 of the top 10 causes of death worldwide in 2015, ranking above HIV and malaria.

3. In 2015, 1 million children fell ill with TB, and 210 000 children (including 40 000 with HIV) died due to TB. Childhood TB is often overlooked by health providers as it can be difficult to diagnose and treat.

4. TB is the leading killer of people living with HIV. About 35% of deaths among people with HIV is due to TB. In 2015, the proportion of known HIV-positive TB patients on antiretroviral therapy was 78%.

5. Worldwide, the number of people falling ill with TB is declining and the number of TB deaths dropped 22% between 2000 and 2015. Since 2010, the fastest rate of decline in the mortality rate has been in the Eastern Mediterranean and European regions (6.5% and 6.2% per year, respectively), and slowest in the African region (2.2% per year).

6. In 2015, the 30 high TB burden countries accounted for about 87% of new TB cases. TB occurs in every part of the world, but the majority of cases are in Asia (61%) and in Africa (26%).

7. An estimated 480 000 people developed multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in 2015. In some cases, an even more severe form of multi-drug resistant TB may develop with bad treatment. Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is a form of TB that responds to even fewer available medicines.

8. TB treatment saved 49 million lives globally between 2000 and 2015, but important diagnostic and treatment gaps persist. The treatment success rate for people with TB was 83% in 2014.

9. Of the estimated 10.4 million new cases, only 6.1 million were detected and notified in 2015, leading to a gap of 4.3 million cases. The global rate of TB case reduction remained at 1.5% from 2014 to 2015 and needs to accelerate to 4–5% by 2020 to reach the first of the "End TB Strategy" milestones.

10. For TB care and prevention, investments in low- and middle-income countries fall almost US$ 2 billion short of the US$ 8.3 billion needed in 2016. This gap will widen by 2020 if current levels of funding are not increased.