Epidemiology of tuberculosis in the world

Tuberculosis is the most important single cause of infectious disease in the world today, causing 8 million new cases and 3 million deaths annually. Almost one third of the world's population is infected with the causative organism, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The declining trend in cases ceased or reversed in the developed and parts of the developing world during the 1080s. In most developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, the trend continues to deteriorate due to failure to give priority to, or poorly organized, programs with low case finding and cure, lack of international donors support, coinfection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), increasing homelessness, and increasing institutional outbreaks. Although modern short course combination chemotherapy is highly effective, mortality rates remain high in these areas. Drug resistance, particularly resistance to isoniazid and rifampin (MDR-TB), poses a significant problem to control programs but with some exceptions has not been Surveyed systematically; the WHO/IUATLD Global Surveillance Project was established to address this deficiency and its role is as described.