In its latest Global Tuberculosis Report, the World Health Organization estimates that effective diagnosis and treatment have saved 43 million lives between 2000 and 2014. That’s nearly a 50 percent drop in mortality. These powerful statistics not only remind us that TB is both preventable and curable, but they show just how much transformation we can bring about when we pair global ambition with action.
So how can it be that TB remains one of the world’s biggest health threats, ranking as the number one cause of death from infectious disease worldwide?
First, efforts to eliminate TB are being thwarted by the alarming spread of multidrug-resistant TB — now considered a global public health crisis. Secondly — and quite cruelly — it is the poorest areas of the world that typically bear the brunt of the burden.