Today marks World Tuberculosis Day and Alpha-Tec Systems would like to take a moment to help bring some awareness to the continuing issue of tuberculosis (TB) and to acknowledge all the incredible work being done across the globe to provide education, improve diagnostics, increase treatment, and ultimately save lives.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), TB diagnostics and treatment saved an estimated 49 million lives between 2000 and 2015. However, we are still not where we want to be – more than 4,000 people still die every day from the disease.
The first step towards change is to be aware of the problem. Here are some key facts from the WHO about TB:
1. TB is currently one of the top 10 causes of death in the world.
2. In 2015, 10.4 million people (1 million of which were children) became sick with TB and 1.8 million died of the disease.
3. Over 95% of TB deaths occur in developing countries.
4. TB is the leading cause of death for people living with HIV; in 2015, 35% of HIV deaths were due to TB.
5. Around 60% of the total TB cases are found in the following six countries: India, Indonesia, China, Nigeria, Pakistan, and South Africa.
6. TB is one of the top five killers worldwide of women ages 20-59 and mothers with TB have a six-fold increase in prenatal deaths and a two-fold risk of premature birth.
7. In 2014, the treatment success rate for people newly diagnosed with TB was 83%.
8. The number of TB deaths globally fell by 22% between 2000 and 2015.
9. Due to worldwide TB response efforts, 3 million lives were saved in 2015.
10. In 2015, roughly 480,000 people worldwide developed multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and only 1 in 5 who needed MDR-TB treatment enrolled in it.
11. In 2015, an estimated 4.3 million cases of TB were missed by national health care systems across the world.
Now that you know the above, help spread awareness by sharing this with others.
CC17-114, Effective Date: 24 Mar 2017, WEB-PG-NEWS-002.A