In its 2011 Global Tuberculosis Control Report, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that last year, for the first time, the global incidence of tuberculosis (TB) declined, while deaths associated with the disease dropped to a record low for the past decade. Currently, approximately one-third of people worldwide are infected with TB, a bacteria that enters the lungs and destroys tissue there. Although for most of these people the bacteria will not cause any active disease, in cases where TB does become active, the person will begin to cough up the bacteria into the air and infect others, making it one of the most dangerous and widespread communicable diseases in the world.
According to the new report, the TB death rate dropped 40 percent in 2010, compared to 1990, and the absolute number of cases of the disease has been declining since 2006. Better data collection, increased funding, and better prevention and care have all been credited with lessening the burden of TB. Despite the good news, however, more progress in fighting TB is necessary, especially in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Russia countries where the disease remains prevalent.
To combat the disease, some countries have increasingly begun to vaccinate children against TB. Treating the disease requires a difficult course of antibiotics that must be taken daily for months in order to eradicate the bacteria. Because these treatment regimens are not always properly adhered to, emerging strains of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB are on the rise.
