Worldwide TB Facts

  • Tuberculosis has been declared a Global Emergency – it is one of the world’s top three killer infectious diseases together with HIV and Malaria.
  • 1 person somewhere in the world dies of Tuberculosis every 16 seconds, despite the fact that it’s a curable disease.
  • Thought Tuberculosis was a disease of the past?  Worldwide more people will die of TB this year than any other year in history. 
  • 2 million people a year die of Tuberculosis.  That’s the same number of deaths as 8 Boxing Day 2005 Tsunamis.  Every single year.
  • The first drugs to cure TB were invented over 60 years ago and the current drug regime was introduced in the 1960s.
  • TB patients have to take their drugs for at least 6 months.  If they stop before the course is finished they may develop multi drug resistance (MDR-TB).
  • Multi-drug resistant TB can usually be cured but the course of medication lasts for at least two years.
  • Tuberculosis is the main killer of people living with HIV in developing countries.  Yet TB can be cured even if someone is HIV positive – giving them years more life.
  • Tuberculosis is one of the oldest diseases known to man – traces have been found in Egyptian mummies.
  • In biblical times the term Leprosy was a catch-all for skin diseases.  Many of the people thought of as lepers probably had skin TB.
  • TB and Leprosy share the same root bacteria and are cured by similar drugs.  More importantly they also cause the same stigma for patients.
  • 24th March is World Stop TB Day every year.  A day to remember 2 million deaths a year from Tuberculosis.
  • TB can affect any part of the body but only lung or throat TB can be (but are not always) infectious. Most people with infectious TB stop being so within two weeks of starting medication.
  • There’s a difference between active TB and TB infection. TB infection means that the bacteria are lying dormant in the body – this is often called latent TB and does not harm the individual or present a risk of infection to others.
  • Only approximately 10% of those with latent infection develop active disease.
  • The World Health Organisation Estimates that one third of the world’s population has latent TB.

 

UK TB Facts

  • More people are diagnosed each year in this country with Tuberculosis than with HIV.
  • Brent, in West London has a higher rate of Tuberculosis than Azerbaijan
  • Every day in the UK at least one person will die of TB – most of them could have been cured if someone had remembered to think of TB, and they had been diagnosed earlier.
  • Many people think TB was eradicated in the UK. It never was. The lowest number of cases in England and Wales was in 1987 when there were 5086 cases. Since 2000, there has been an average of 7,000 cases and 400 deaths each year in the UK as a whole.
  • The schools BCG vaccination was replaced in 2005 with a risk based vaccination policy. The UK experienced an increase in TB cases despite a universal BCG vaccination policy. The BCG vaccination gives some protection to some people but not to everyone. The only effective way to prevent TB is to treat people who have it and stop them spreading it.
  • It’s estimated that you would need to spend over eight hours in the close company of someone with infectious TB to be at risk of infection yourself. Even then, if you’re a healthy adult, you’d only have a 10% chance of developing active TB.