Tuberculosis:
The Leading Infectious Cause of Death Worldwide
A Global Threat
Tuberculosis (TB) is a global pandemic, found in every country in the world. It is the leading infectious cause of death worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that 1.8 billion people—close to one quarter of the world's population—are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the bacteria that causes TB. It kills someone approximately every 21 seconds. Last year, 10 million fell ill from TB and 1.5 million died. TB is an airborne disease that can be spread by coughing or sneezing and is the leading cause of infectious disease worldwide. It is responsible for economic devastation and the cycle of poverty and illness that entraps families, communities and even entire countries. Among the most vulnerable are women, children, and those with HIV/AIDS. There is growing resistance to available drugs, which means the disease is becoming more deadly and difficult to treat. There were more than half a million cases of drug resistant TB last year.
Facts
- 4109 Deaths Daily: TB is the leading infectious killer in the world.
- 6-30 Months: TB therapy lasts from six months to longer than two years.
- 78% Untreated: About 4 in 5 cases of MDR-TB around the world go untreated.
- $16.7 Trillion Dollars: MDR-TB could cost the world $16.7 trillion by 2050.
- 1 Million Children: A million children get sick with TB each year.
TB+HIV: A Dual Epidemic
TB and HIV/AIDS are a deadly duo. HIV weakens people’s immune systems, allowing TB to flourish. TB is the leading killer of people with HIV/AIDS, claiming over one in four lives of people with HIV. And, in countries where TB is prevalent, people with HIV/AIDS are 20 times more likely to contract TB than others without HIV.
Drug Resistance
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—which occurs when microorganisms no longer respond to the drugs designed to treat them—is becoming one of the defining health issues of our time. The threat posed by “superbugs” to public health, safety, and the global economy is staggering.
Drug-resistant TB develops when the long, complex, decades-old TB drug regimen is improperly administered, or when people with TB stop taking their medicines before the disease has been fully eradicated from their body. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) are difficult to cure, and even when long, burdensome treatment regimens are completed, have high mortality rates. Once a drug-resistant strain has developed, it can be transmitted directly to others just like drug-susceptible TB.
About 29% of deaths caused by antimicrobial infections today are due to drug-resistant TB.
Drug-resistant TB develops when the long, complex, decades-old TB drug regimen is improperly administered, or when people with TB stop taking their medicines before the disease has been fully eradicated from their body. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) are difficult to cure, and even when long, burdensome treatment regimens are completed, have high mortality rates. Once a drug-resistant strain has developed, it can be transmitted directly to others just like drug-susceptible TB.
About 29% of deaths caused by antimicrobial infections today are due to drug-resistant TB.
A Growing Threat
There are over half a million cases of drug-resistant TB each year. Multidrug-resistant TB is such a global health threat because the medicines are very expensive (can be thousands of times more expensive than treating drug-sensitive TB), take years to work, and ultimately inadequate to stop the disease and its spread.
A recent report from a UK parliamentary group stated over the next 35 years, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis will kill 75 million people and could cost the global economy a cumulative $16.7 trillion.
A recent report from a UK parliamentary group stated over the next 35 years, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis will kill 75 million people and could cost the global economy a cumulative $16.7 trillion.
Source:
"TB is a Pandemic" TB Alliance, Accessed: May 23, 2020, https://www.tballiance.org/why-new-tb-drugs/global-pandemic