The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared tuberculosis a global emergency: a third of the world's population is infected.
TB causes over three million deaths annually, making it the infectious disease with the highest adult mortality rate. It is a bigger killer than Aids and malaria combined. More people die of TB now than ever before.
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TB accounts for more than a quarter of all preventable adult deaths in developing countries.
TB is the biggest killer of young women. Over one million women die from TB annually - more than all causes of maternal mortality combined.
People of all ages, nationalities and socio-economic groups can get TB.
Every country is vulnerable to the consequences of poor TB treatment practices in others.
People with untreated TB will probably infect another 10 to 15 people each year.
TB is the leading infectious killer of people with HIV/Aids, accounting for a third of Aids deaths. HIV and TB each speed the other's progress.
80 percent of TB sufferers are in their most economically productive years.
5 to 10 percent of people infected with TB become sick or infectious.
Factors that may be contributing to the increase in TB infection are:
Increasing number of Aids/HIV cases.
Drug-resistant TB strains.
Population mobility. Global trade and air travel have increased greatly since 1960. Numbers of refugees and displaced people have increased nine-fold in 20 years. TB spreads quickly in crowded refugee camps and shelters. It is difficult to treat mobile populations. Other displaced people such as homeless people in industrialised countries are at risk.
Prevalence in South Africa
TB has reached epidemic proportions in South Africa: the WHO has confirmed that we have one of the world's worst TB epidemics.
TB disease rates are up to 60 times higher than in the US or Western Europe. In 1998 about 180 000 South Africans had TB, from which 12 000 died.
SA has the highest reported infection rate. In the Western Cape the infection rate is about 250 to 300 cases per 100 000 people.
Nearly half of all TB patients are HIV-positive.
TB is the leading infectious killer of youths and adults.
About two thirds of the population are infected with TB, although most will not get TB disease.
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