Political and economic factors prevent two thirds of the people in the world with active TB from receiving the most effective treatment.

• Every year 8.8 million people develop active TB and 1.7 million people die of the disease worldwide.
• Tuberculosis usually destroys the lungs, often leading to death through asphyxiation. It can also infect the brain, spine, hips, lymph nodes and other parts of the body.
• Symptoms of TB sickness include coughing, weight loss, chest pain, fever and night sweats. The coughing usually lasts for weeks and may produce bloody sputum.
• Resistant strains of TB are increasing worldwide. These “super bugs” can be 100 more expensive to treat, and sometimes impossible to cure.
• Only people who are sick with TB can infect others, which is why quickly curing infected people is especially important.
• Every year 8.8 million people develop active TB and 1.7 million people die of the disease worldwide.
• Two billion people worldwide are carriers of the tuberculosis bacillus, the germ that can lead to active TB.
• Nearly 80% of all cases of tuberculosis occur in just 22 countries, most in Africa and Asia. Most are poor people between the ages of 15 and 54.
• Between 2000 and 2020, nearly 1 billion additional people will be newly infected with TB, 200 million will become sick and 35 million will die of the disease unless current efforts to control TB are greatly strengthened and expanded.
• Millions of TB deaths can be averted through the use of DOTS, a public health strategy designed to carefully monitor each patient’s progress toward being cured while they are being treated with a combination of inexpensive TB drugs.
• The DOTS strategy can cure disease in over 85% of infectious patients, even in the poorest countries.
• Only one in four TB patients throughout the world is being treated under DOTS. If the global targets for controlling TB are to be reached, a rapid expansion of DOTS services is needed.
• Medicines for a six-month course of treatment for TB: $10.00.

–*

All of the information above is from the web site, The Massive Effort Campaign Readers interested in learning more about what can be done to fight this problem are encouraged to visit this site.