Tuberculosis is a preventable and treatable disease, yet 1.5 million people died from TB last year–including 360,000 people who were HIV positive. Today’s map comes from the World Health Organization’s brand new Global Tuberculosis Report. It shows the estimated TB mortality rates–the darker the color, the higher the rate of TB deaths. As you can see from the map, TB is very much a disease of the poor. (Click here for larger image)
But there’s good news! Despite the still large number of deaths, global TB rates have been on the overall decline and humanity is on the path to achieving the MDG. From the WHO:
The report stresses, however, that the mortality rate from TB is still falling and has dropped by 45% since 1990, while the number of people developing the disease is declining by an average 1.5% a year. An estimated 37 million lives have been saved through effective diagnosis and treatment of TB since 2000.
“Following a concerted effort by countries, by WHO and by multiple partners, investment in national surveys and routine surveillance efforts has substantially increased. This is providing us with much more and better data, bringing us closer and closer to understanding the true burden of tuberculosis,” says Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the Global TB Programme, WHO.
Although higher, these revised figures fall within the upper limit of previous WHO estimates. The report, however, underlines that a staggering number of lives are being lost to a curable disease and confirms that TB is the second biggest killer disease from a single infectious agent. In addition, around 3 million people who fall ill from TB are still being ‘missed’ by health systems each year either because they are not diagnosed, or because they are diagnosed but not reported.
Insufficient funding is hampering efforts to combat the global epidemic. An estimated US$ 8 billion is needed each year for a full response, but there is currently an annual shortfall of US$ 2 billion, which must be addressed.
Read the full report.