World Tuberculosis Day: Some interesting facts about the infectious disease

Every year, World Tuberculosis Day is celebrated to spread awareness about the health, social and economic impact of tuberculosis (TB). The day also highlights the efforts taken by different countries to put and end to TB. It is a serious infectious disease that mainly affects the lungs. Timely diagnosis and intervention is needed to prevent damage to lungs. Here are some interesting facts about World Tuberculosis Day:

1. So far, 66,000,000 lives have been saved since 2000 by global efforts to end TB; 9,900,000 people fell ill with TB in 2020; 1,500,000 people died of TB in 2020.

2. The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of progress made in the fight to end TB. For the first time in over a decade, TB deaths increased in 2020.

3. TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers. Each day, over 4100 people lose their lives to TB and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.

4. About one quarter of the world’s population is infected with tuberculosis (TB) bacteria. Only a small proportion of those infected will become sick with TB.

5. People with weakened immune systems have a much greater risk of falling ill from TB. A person living with HIV is about 20 times more likely to develop active TB.

6. The WHO End TB Strategy outlines global impact targets to reduce TB deaths by 90% and to cut new cases by 80% between 2015 and 2030, and to ensure that no family is burdened with catastrophic expenses due to TB. (Source: www.who.int)