Tuberculosis Global Epidemiology

Globally, tuberculosis is one of the top 10 overall causes of death, the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, and the principal cause of death among subjects living with human immunodeficiency virus infection.

The United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) have set very ambitious goals for the period 2020-2035 that include a 95% reduction in the number of deaths and a 90% reduction in TB incidence by 2035 compared with 2015.

The WHO reported in 2018, an estimated 10 million incident cases of TB (global incidence rate: 133 cases per 105 population), and 1.2 million TB deaths, for a case fatality rate of 15.7%. Incidence rates vary widely among regions of the world; geographically, most TB cases in 2018 were in the WHO regions of South-East Asia (44%), Africa (24%) and the Western Pacific (18%).

Rifampin-resistant (RR-TB) or multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in 2018 occurred in an estimated half a million cases, and accounted for 3.4% of all new cases and 18% of previously treated cases; an estimated 230,000 persons died of either RR or MDR-TB (case fatality rate: 41%).

Almost a quarter of the world population (1.7 billion people or 23%) are estimated to have latent TB infection and therefore are at risk of developing active TB during their lifetime.

Progress toward global TB elimination during 2018 was very modest, as it has occurred in recent years, and if kept at this current pace, the global targets for the period 2020- 2035 will not be accomplished.

Keywords: Epidemiology, Incidence, MDR-TB, Mortality, Tuberculosis, XDRTB.