Fast Facts: TB and HIV

(Photo credit: WHO/TBP/Davenport)

Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious disease caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis in any part of the body. It is transmitted through aerosolized droplets after infected people cough, sneeze or speak.

HIV stands for ‘human immunodeficiency virus’, the virus that causes AIDS

**More than 5,000 people die every day from TB despite a cure having been available for 50 years.

**TB is a leading killer of people infected with HIV.

**TB accounts for about 13% of AIDS deaths worldwide.

**In Africa, HIV is the single most important factor determining the increased incidence of TB in the past 10 years.

**People living with HIV are up to 50 times more likely to develop TB than those who are not infected.

**If TB is left unchecked, almost one billion people will become newly infected in next 20 years, over 150 million will become ill and 36 million will die of TB.

**TB is the biggest curable infectious killer of young people and adults.

**In most of East and Southern Africa, less than one patient in three receives a full course of TB drugs.

**TB causes more deaths among women than all causes of maternal mortality combined.

**TB is curable, even in people living with HIV. DOTS (daily observed treatment, short-course) is the internationally recommended strategy for TB control.

These facts were compiled from various web sources including, World Health Organization (WHO), Stop TB Partnership and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/, http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/hivtb.htm.