Untitled Document

The Current Global Status of TB

The World Health Organization estimates that eight million people contract tuberculosis every year, 95 percent of whom live in developing countries. Annually, an estimated 3 million people die from TB every year.

The registered number of new cases of TB worldwide roughly correlates with economic conditions: the highest incidences are seen in African, Asian, and Latin American countries with the lowest gross national products (GNPs).

In industrialized countries, tuberculosis incidence began to level off in the mid-1980s and then stagnated or even began to increase. Much of this rise can be at least partially attributed to a high rate of immigration from countries with high TB rates. It is both difficult and contentious to perform epidemiological surveillance and treatment in immigrant communities because of cultural attitudes to the disease, and the political ramifications of targeting groups on the basis of ethnicity.

A great influence in the rising TB trend is HIV infection. Chances are that only one out of ten immuno-competent people infected with M. tuberculosis will develop active TB in their lifetimes, but among those with HIV, one in ten per year will become sick, and one in two or three positive tuberculin test AIDS patients will develop active disease. In many industrialized countries this is a tragedy for the patients involved, but they cases make up only a small minority of TB cases. It is in developing countries that the impact of HIV infection on the TB complex, especially in the 20-35 age group, is worthy of concern.

A final factor contributing to the resurgence of TB is the emergence of multi-drug resistance, which is explained above in section 2.2 (The Biology of Tuberculosis). While wealthy industrialized countries with good public health care systems can be expected to keep TB under control, in much of the developing world a catastrophe awaits. It is crucially important that support be given to research efforts devoted to developing an effective TB vaccine, shortening the amount of time required to ascertain drug sensitivities, improving the diagnosis of TB, and creating new, highly effective anti-TB medications. Without support for such efforts, we run the risk of losing the battle against TB.

Background:
Biology | Current Situation | Case Studies | Glossary