John Elflein
Research expert covering health and health care
Tuberculosis - Statistics & Facts
Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs, but can potentially spread to other areas of the body, including the brain and spine. There are two types of TB, latent TB and active TB. With latent TB, bacteria remain in the body, but are inactive. People with latent TB show no symptoms and are not contagious, but there remains about a ten percent chance that the disease will become active. With active TB, the disease does cause symptoms and is contagious through the air. Common symptoms of TB include coughing, weight loss, fever, chest pain, fatigue, and night sweats.
Deaths from tuberculosis
In 2021, tuberculosis was responsible for around 1.6 million deaths worldwide, with most TB cases and deaths occurring in developing countries, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia. In 2021, Southeast Asia reported the highest number of deaths due to tuberculosis, with 788 thousand deaths. Southeast Asia also had the highest incidence rate of TB at that with 234 cases per 100,000 population, although Africa was a close second with an incidence rate of 212 per 100,000 population. Cases of TB in developed countries have decreased steadily over the past few decades, with cases in the United States dropping to a rate of 2.72 per 100,000 population in 2019.Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS
People with certain diseases and lifestyles are more prone to active TB, as their immune systems are not as capable of fending off the disease. Those at greater risk include people with HIV or AIDS, kidney disease, and diabetes, as well as those who smoke. Tuberculosis caused around 136,000 deaths among HIV-positive adults in Africa in 2021, with the highest number of HIV-positive tuberculosis cases found in South Africa. However, tuberculosis and TB/HIV interventions averted an estimated 4.8 million deaths among HIV-positive people in Africa from the years 2010 to 2022.
