20 million lives saved through TB care and control
In the space of 17 years, 51 million people have been successfully treated and 20 million lives could be saved. The achievements have been secured by leadership in endemic countries and international support, but today WHO warned that the global fight against the disease remains fragile. "The momentum to break this disease is in real danger. We are now at a crossroads between TB elimination within our lifetime, and millions more TB deaths," said Dr Raviglione.
Key findings show:
- a continued decline in the number of people falling ill from TB, but still an enormous global burden of 8.7 million new cases in 2011;
- an estimated 1.4 million deaths from TB, including half a million women, underlining the disease as one of the world’s top killers of women;
- reduced rates of new disease and deaths in all of WHO’s six regions, although the African and European Regions are not yet on track to achieve goals to halve 1990 levels of mortality by 2015;
- a persistently slow progress in the MDR-TB response, with only 1 in 5 patients estimated to exist being diagnosed worldwide.
he report also highlights important advances in TB diagnosis but notes a US$ 1.4 billion funding gap per year for research and development of new tools.
Click here to download the report