- Tuberculosis (TB) is contagious and spreads through the air. A person with infectious TB can expel TB germs into the air when they cough, sneeze, laugh, or even sing. People in the surrounding area can then inhale these TB germs. If not treated, each person with active TB can infect on average 10 to 15 people a year.
- More than two billion people, equal to one third of the world’s total population, are infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB. One in every 10 of those people will become sick with active TB in his or her lifetime. People living with HIV are at a much greater risk.
- A total of 1.4 million people died from TB in 2011 (including 430 000 people with HIV), equal to about 3,800 deaths a day. TB is a disease of poverty, affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years and women in their childbearing years. The vast majority of TB deaths are in the developing world, with more than half occurring in Asia.
- TB is a leading killer among people living with HIV, who have weakened immune systems. About one in four deaths among people with HIV is due to TB.
- There were 8.7 million new TB cases in 2011, of which 80% were in just 22 countries. Per capita, the global TB incidence rate is falling, but the rate of decline is very slow – less than 1%
- TB is a worldwide pandemic. Among the 15 countries with the highest estimated TB incidence rates, 13 are in Africa, while half of all new cases are in six Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines). No country has ever eliminated the disease.
- Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a form of TB that does not respond to the standard treatments using first-line drugs. MDR-TB is present in virtually all countries surveyed by WHO and its partners.
- There were an estimated 630,000 people with MDR-TB in 2011 with three countries accounting for 56% of all cases globally: China, India and the Russian Federation. Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) occurs when resistance to second-line drugs develops. It is extremely difficult to treat and cases have been confirmed in more than 50 countries.
- WHO’s Stop TB Strategy aims to reach all patients and achieve the target under Millennium Development Goal Six (MDG6): to reduce by 2015 the prevalence of and deaths due to TB by 50% relative to 1990 and reverse the trend in incidence. The strategy emphasizes the need for proper health systems and the importance of effective primary health care to address the TB epidemic. The world is on track to achieve two global TB targets sets for 2015: Europe and Africa are not on track.
- The Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015, launched in January 2006, aims to achieve the MDG target with an investment of US$ 67 billion. This represents more than a three-fold increase in investment from 2005. The estimated funding gap is US$ 40 billion.
