Global tuberculosis: Perspectives, prospects, and priorities

Despite being nearly 100% curable, tuberculosis remains a major public health problem, representing the second leading cause of death from infectious diseases globally, with drug-resistant tuberculosis increasingly common. In 2012, an estimated 8.6 million people developed tuberculosis worldwide—a global incidence rate of 122 persons per 100 000 population—and 1.3 million people died. Incidence rates vary from high in southern Africa (550/100 000 population in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and 1000/100 000 population in South Africa) to fewer than 10/100 000 population in the United States, Canada, and most of Western Europe. Although the global prevalence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was estimated at 3.6% of newly diagnosed and 20.2% of previously treated patients, these rates were 20% to 35% for newly diagnosed cases and 50% to 69% for retreatment cases in the Russian Federation and some other former Soviet republics.