infections
Tuberculosis (TB)
Tuberculosis worldwide
Tuberculosis has been a serious public health problem for a long time. In the 1800s, the disease caused more than 30% of all deaths in Europe. With the advent of antituberculosis antibiotics in the late 1940s, the battle against tuberculosis seemed to be won. However, because of factors such as inadequate public health resources, reduced immune response due to HIV/AIDS, the development of Antibiotic resistance , and extreme poverty in many parts of the world, tuberculosis continues to be a deadly disease worldwide, as the following statistics from 2020 show: There were an estimated 9.9 million new cases of symptomatic tuberculosis and an estimated 1.5 million deaths from the disease. Most new cases occurred in Southeast Asia (43%), which includes India and Pakistan, followed by Africa (25%) and the Western Pacific (18%), which includes China, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia. The number of new cases varies widely by country, age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status. Two thirds of new cases occurred in eight countries. Most new cases occurred in India, followed by Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and South Africa. About one fourth of all the people in the world are thought to be infected. Most have a dormant (inactive or latent) tuberculosis infection. Only a small percentage of these infections progress to Active disease . At any one time, about 15 million people worldwide have active tuberculosis. Worldwide, tuberculosis is a leading cause of death. In 2020, tuberculosis killed about 1.5 million people worldwide, most of them in low- and middle-income countries. In areas of the world where both HIV infection and tuberculosis are common, having HIV infection or AIDS greatly increases the risk of getting tuberculosis and dying. In 2020, about 214,000 deaths from tuberculosis occurred in people with HIV infection. Tuberculosis caused about 1.5 million deaths worldwide in 2020. 