Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease that occurs worldwide.

• TB is second only to HIV/AIDS for the number of individuals killed worldwide from a single agent.
• In 2013, 1.5 million died from TB and 9 million became ill
• The vast majority (>95%) of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries

 

Fortunately, public health and clinical measures have had some success.

• The estimated number of individuals annually become ill with TB is declining
• The TB death rate dropped 45% between 1990 and 2014
• An estimated 37 million lives were saved between 2000 and 2013 through diagnosis and treatment

 

Bottom line:

• Tuberculosis (TB) is a major killer worldwide.
• Treatments are available to treat both latent and active disease
  • See: http://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/treatment/
• Good clinical awareness is key to disease identification

 

References

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/

http://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/treatment/