WHO releases Global Tuberculosis Report 2015 (28 October 2015)

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released the Global Tuberculosis Report 2015. It simultaneously updated the fact sheet on Tuberculosis to reflect the latest facts and figures (as reported in the Global Tuberculosis Report 2015).

Key Messages:

Thanks to better reporting, this year’s report describes higher TB totals for new (incident) cases than in previous years.

The increase in new cases (from 5.7 million till 2013, to more than 6 million in 2014) is largely due to increased reporting from India. Following the introduction of a policy of mandatory notification in May 2012, there was a 29% increase in notifications. India accounted for 27% of global TB notifications in 2014.

There has been a 47% decline in the TB death rate since 1990, with most of the decrease occurring after 2000.

Effective TB diagnosis and treatment saved an estimated 43 million lives between 2000 and 2014.

Overall, TB killed 1.1 million HIV-negative people and 0.4 million HIV positive people in 2014. (TB deaths among HIV-positive people are counted among HIV deaths according to the International Classification of Diseases).

In 2014, HIV accounted for 1.2 million deaths, while TB was responsible for 1.1 million deaths, making these two of the leading causes of death worldwide.

TB is a leading killer of HIV-positive people: in 2015, 1 in 3 HIV deaths was due to TB.

An estimated 9.6 million new cases of TB occurred in 2014: Men: 5.4 million; Women: 3.2 million; Children: 1.0 million. Of these, only 6 million were reported to the WHO. Therefore, nearly 37% of new cases were either undiagnosed, or not reported.

12% of the 9.6 million new cases were HIV-positive.The African Region accounted for 74% of these cases.

Of the 9.6 million new TB cases in 2014, 58% were in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions.

The African Region had 28% of the world’s cases in 2014, but the most severe burden relative to population: 281 cases for every 100 000 people, more than double the global average of 133 for every 100 000 people.

India (23%), Indonesia (10%) and China (10%) had the largest number of cases of the global total.

An estimated 480,000 cases of Multi-Drug Resistance TB (MDR-TB) occurred in 2014. Of these, only 123,000 cases were diagnosed and reported.

An estimated 190,000 people died of MDR-TB in 2014.

Globally, an estimated 3.3% of new TB cases and 20% of previously treated cases have MDR-TB, a level that has changed little in recent years.

Globally, only 50% of MDR-TB patients were successfully treated.

An estimated 9.7% of people with MDR-TB have Extensively Drug-Resistant TB (XDR-TB).

The cost per patient treated for drug-susceptible TB in 2014 ranged from US$ 100−500 in most countries with a high burden of TB. The cost per patient treated for MDR-TB was typically US$ 5000−10 000.

New diagnostic tests and anti-tuberculosis drugs are under development.

Useful Links:

Link to the updated fact sheet on tuberculosis:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/

Link to the Executive Summary of the Global Tuberculosis Report 2015:

http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/gtbr2015_executive_summary.pdf?ua=1

Link to the full Global Tuberculosis Report 2015:

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/191102/1/9789241565059_eng.pdf?ua=1

Link to infographic on TB (JPEG):

http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/GTBreport2015.jpeg?ua=1

Link to Facts on TB [from the Global TB Report 2015] (PDF):

http://www.who.int/tb/Global_TB_Facts.pdf?ua=1