Tuberculosis ranks alongside HIV as leading killer worldwide: WHO report

By Park Sae-jin Posted : November 5, 2015, 16:37 Updated : November 5, 2015, 16:37
In 2014, tuberculosis (TB) killed 1.5 million people, 400,000 of whom were HIV-positive, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday, ranking the disease alongside HIV as a leading killer worldwide.

WHO said in a report that the fight against TB is paying off, however, with this year's death rate nearly half of what it was in 1990.

According to the WHO's Global Tuberculosis Report 2015, most of the improvement came since 2000, the year the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were established. In all, effective diagnosis and treatment saved 43 million lives between 2000 and 2015.

Worldwide, TB incidence has fallen 1.5 percent per year since 2000, for a total reduction of 18 percent.

The report highlighted the need to close detection and treatment gaps, fill funding shortfalls, and develop new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.

By Ruchi Singh
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