Tuberculosis, declared as a curable and treatable infection, is killing an "unacceptably high" number of individuals per day close at hand with HIV/AIDS according to the World Health Organization's report released on Oct. 28. Although there were increased treatment and prevention efforts in the past two decades, the death toll remained high (at about 1.5 million people in 2014) based on the Global Tuberculosis Report 2015 by the UN health agency.
"HIV's total death toll in 2014 was estimated at 1.2 million, which included the 400,000 TB deaths among HIV-positive people," the WHO said. It is difficult to estimate which infection caused the death of the 400,000 individuals with HIV and TB since HIV patients are easily susceptible to TB.
"We are still facing a burden of 4,400 people dying every day, which is unacceptable in an era when you can diagnose and cure nearly every person with TB," WHO's Global TB Program director Dr. Mario Raviglione said. "To reduce this burden, detection and treatment gaps must be addressed, funding gaps closed and new tools developed," as stated by the report from the U.S. capital.
The causative agent of tuberculosis is called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease usually attacks the lungs, but other organs like kidney, spine and brain are also affected.
Considered as one of the deadliest disease in the world, roughly 9.6 million people were affected worldwide in 2014 and over 10 per cent of those were tested positive with HIV. HIV/AIDS is an immunosuppressive infection, thereby making people susceptible to TB bacteria. Furthermore, most of these cases (54 percent) are found in China, Pakistan, India, Nigeria and Indonesia.
The WHO admitted that one of the factors affecting quality of care is due to the lack of resources wherein a total monetary budget of US$2.7 billion is needed. Research for new drugs, tests and vaccines, especially with the spread of multidrug-resistant TB is allocated US$1.3 billion, while the remaining US$1.2 billion will be needed for the current drugs and treatments.
As per WHO "Worldwide, TB incidence has fallen 1.5 percent per year since 2000, for a total reduction of 18 percent... effective diagnosis and treatment saved 43 million lives between 2000 and 2015."
