Question: How dangerous is tuberculosis be now?

Jean Bourke answered on 19 Nov 2012:

Tuberculosis is still very dangerous. Perhaps more so because we have become quite complacent about it. Tuberculosis is particularly dangerous to those with impaired immune function, such as those with HIV/AIDS.

Every year there are over 8 million new infections and 2 million deaths due to TB world wide. One third of the world’s population is thought to have been infected with M. tuberculosis and new infections occur at a rate of about one per second. About 80% of the population in many Asian and African countries test positive in tuberculin tests, while only 5–10% of the U.S. population test positive.

Chronic TB is a long standing infection and there over 13 million people living with chronic TB. The absolute number of tuberculosis cases has been decreasing since 2006 and new cases since 2002. This does not mean it is no longer a major threat to health as it is constantly evolving and multidrug resistant strains (do not respond to most antibiotics). There are now completely drug resistant strains that do not respond to any of the antibiotics we have, which is a very scary thought.

Some facts from the world health organisation are
Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent
TB is a leading killer of people living with HIV causing one quarter of all deaths.
Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) is present in virtually all countries surveyed.

Here in Ireland there are regularly TB outbreaks. We really do need to keep vaccinating and developing new treatments.