Tuberculosis is Now Equivalent to HIV

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Tuberculosis (TB)

is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. Tuberculosis is curable and preventable.

2015 Global Tuberculosis report this collected data TBC 209 countries and territories. In addition to demonstrating a decrease in TB cases, this report also illustrates the significant gaps in detecting and treating tuberculosis.

The World Health Organization ( WHO ) reported the death rate from tuberculosis or TB has dropped by almost half compared to the figure in 1990. However, according to the WHO, tuberculosis is now equivalent to HIV / AIDS as a cause of death worldwide. Nearly half of the deaths from tuberculosis occurred in five countries, China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, along with Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan.

About one-third of the world’s population has latent TB, which means people have been infected by TB bacteria but are not (yet) ill with the disease and cannot transmit the disease. TB and HIV often occur together because when a person’s immune system is not functioning properly, he becomes more vulnerable to other infectious diseases. Four hundred thousand people who died in 2014 infected with TB and HIV. Although still high, the number of people who died of HIV has dropped in recent years.

The decline of the ones we see in deaths from HIV / TB is because people undergoing antiretroviral treatment for HIV.

If the world wants to end this epidemic, the world needs to improve services and, importantly, investment in research. TB is spread through the air to kill so many people, when people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.

Who is most at risk of infection with tuberculosis?

  • Tuberculosis mostly affects adults in their most productive years. However, all age groups are at risk. Over 95% of cases and deaths are in developing countries.
  •  People who are infected with HIV are 20 to 30 times more likely to develop active TB (see TB and HIV section). The risk of active TB is also greater in persons suffering from other conditions that impair the immune system.
  •  Tobacco use greatly increases the risk of TB disease and death.