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View all search resultsStrong global leadership needed to end TB epidemic
Tuberculosis surpassed HIV as the world’s biggest infectious disease killer in 2016.
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Tuberculosis surpassed HIV as the world’s biggest infectious disease killer in 2016. (Shutterstock/File)
Tuberculosis (TB) surpassed the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the world’s biggest infectious disease killer in 2016.
Last year, around 1.6 million people lost their lives to a disease that is treatable and curable. But TB continues to spread.
The best available data from 2017 shows that some 10 million people became ill with TB worldwide, including 1 million children, but 6.4 million cases are not notified — meaning they are diagnosed and reported to national registers as required by law in most countries. This leaves an astounding 3.6 million people with TB “missing”. These are people who are still sick and left without proper treatment — allowing it to continue to thrive.
And it thrives mainly in low-income countries where the most vulnerable communities live. Sixty-four percent of people with TB live in just seven countries: India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa.
