7 Facts about Tuberculosis and a Reason for Hope

1

1 in every 4 people on the planet is infected with tuberculosis bacilli, but most of them do not know it.

Tuberculosis can lie dormant for years. Only 1 in every 10 of those infected will become sick with the disease.
 

2

Tuberculosis is the second leading cause of death from infectious disease, after HIV.

In 2021 alone, tuberculosis killed 1.6 million people, including 187,000 people living with HIV.

80% of cases and deaths occur in low-and middle-income countries.

3

In 2021, 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis, and of these: 1.2 million were children.

4

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and the infection is spread by airbone droplets.

Left untreated, a person with active tuberculosis disease can infect 10 to 15 people every year.

5

The spread of strains of the tuberculosis bacterium resistant to standard drug treatments has become a major threat.

It is estimated that there were 450,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in 2022.

6 

Treating the disease is still a long process:

• Treatment lasts for 6 months
• A shorter 4-month régimen, equally effective as the 6-month regiment, is not yet available wordlwide.

7

There is no definitive vaccine abainst TB.

The BCG vaccination, developed a century ago by Calmette and Guérin, only confers partial protection in childhood.

STOP TB

Despite all the difficulties, between 2000 and 2021 some 74 million lives were saved by the diagnosis and effective treatment of tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis can be stopped!