22 OCTOBER 2014 ¦ GENEVA
''This is the nineteenth global report on tuberculosis (TB) published by WHO in a series that started in 1997. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic and progress in implementing and financing TB prevention, care and control at global, regional and country levels using data reported by over 200 countries that account for over 99% of the world's TB cases. The report is accompanied by a special supplement that marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Global Project on Anti-TB Drug Resistance Surveillance. The supplement highlights the latest status of knowledge about the epidemic of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and the programmatic response.''
Recent intensive efforts to improve collection and REPORTING of data on tuberculosis (TB) are shedding new light on the epidemic, revealing that there are almost half a million more cases of the disease than previously estimated. WHO’s "Global Tuberculosis REPORT 2014", published today, shows that 9 million people developed TB in 2013, and 1.5 million died, including 360 000 people who were HIV POSITIVE.
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.
HIV-related TB deaths down by one third in last decade
Another key challenge is the co-epidemic of TB and HIV. An estimated 1.1 million (13%) of the 9 million people who developed TB in 2013 were HIV-positive, with 4 out of 5 cases and deaths occurring in the African Region. While the number of TB deaths among HIV-positive people has been falling for almost a decade, from 540 000 in 2004 to 360 000 in 2013, antiretroviral treatment, preventive therapy and other key interventions still need to be further scaled-up.