World TB day was three weeks ago. You probably know at least one person who's had it. Its no surprise to find that nine million people developed tuberculosis last year, and two million of them died. We have the tools and the resources to determine the future of the TB epidemic.


Still, someone dies of TB every 15 seconds. Almost everyone could have, should have been cured.


Eight million people develop active TB every year.


Each one can infect between 10 and 15 people in one year just by breathing.


The best way to prevent TB is to treat and cure people who have it.


Drug-resistant TB is caused by inconsistent or partial treatment, when patients do not take all their drugs regularly for the required period because they start to feel better, doctors and health workers prescribe the wrong treatment regimens or the drug supply is unreliable. A particularly dangerous form of drug-resistant TB is multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), which is defined as the disease due to TB bacilli resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful anti-TB drugs. Rates of MDR-TB are high in some countries, especially in the former Soviet Union, and threaten TB control efforts.

http://www.stoptb.org
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/who104/en/