According to World Health Organization (WHO), here are some interesting facts about tuberculosis.

Fact 1 - Tuberculosis is contagious and spreads through air. If not treated, each person with active TB can infect on average 10 to 15 people a year. Fact 2 - More than two billion people, equal to one third of the worlds total population, are infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB. One in every 10 of those people will become sick with active TB in his or her lifetime. People living with HIV are at a much higher risk. Fact 3 - A total of 1.7 million people died from TB in 2009 (including 3, 80,000 people with HIV), equal to about 4,700 deaths a day. TB is a disease of poverty, affecting mostly young adults in their most productive years. The vast majority of TB deaths are in the developing world, with more than half occurring in Asia. Fact 4 - TB is a leading killer among people living with HIV, who have weakened immune systems. Fact 5 - There were 9.4 million new TB cases in 2009, of which 80% were in just 22 countries. Per capita, the global TB incidence rate is falling, but the rate of decline is very slow - less than 1%. Fact 6 - TB is a worldwide pandemic. Among the 15 countries with the highest estimated TB incidence rates, 13 are in Africa, while a third of all new cases are in India and China. Fact 7 - Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a form of TB that does not respond to the standard treatments using first-line drugs. MDR-TB is present in virtually all countries surveyed by WHO and its partners. Fact 8 - There were an estimated 4, 40,000 new MDR-TB cases in 2008 with three countries accounting for over 50% of all cases globally - China, India and the Russian Federation. Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) occurs when resistance to second-line drugs develops. It is extremely difficult to treat and cases have been confirmed in more than 58 countries. Fact 9 - The world is on track to achieve two TB targets set for 2015: Millennium Development Goal, which aims to halt and reverse global incidence (in comparison with 1990); and Stop TB Partnership target of halving deaths from TB (also in comparison with 1990). Fact 10 Forty one million TB patients have been successfully treated in DOTS programmes and up to 6 million lives saved since 1995, 5 million more lives could be saved between now and 2015 by fully funding and implementing The Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015. (Adapted from WHO website) Friday, 19 August 2011 reference: http://doctor.ndtv.com/storypage/ndtv/id/5055/type/feature/World_Tuberculosis_Day_2011.html The age distribution of the TB patients had a bimodal distribution. The male to female ratio for PTB was 2.29. EPTB was more common at younger ages (< 25 years) and in females. Common sites for EPTB were lymph nodes (42.6%) and peritoneum and/or intestines (14.8%). By logistic regression analysis, age less than 25 years (OR 2.11 95% CI 1.123.68) and female gender (OR 1.69, 95% CI 1.122.56) were associated with EPTB. Smoking, use of immunosuppressive drugs/steroids, diabetes and past history of TB was more likely to be associated with PTB. Among the total 118 patients who underwent bronchoscopy, 56 (47.46%) met the criteria for pulmonary tuberculosis. Excluded were 10 patients (8.47%) who had concomitant pulmonary tuberculosis and malignancy, and those who had pulmonary malignancy alone (20.34%). Among those who were diagnosed to have pulmonary tuberculosis on chest x-ray but had negative AFB smears (30.51%), 11 (9.32%) were lost to follow-up whereas 8 (6.78%) did not show convincing evidence of improvement with anti-TB medications, or improved remarkably in less than 2 weeks of therapy; these were excluded from the study. Among the 56 selected patie nts, there were 25 females (44.64%), and 31 males (55.35%) with a male to female ratio of 1:1.2. Ages ranged from 17 to 72 years old with a mean age of 46.9 14.6 years old ( S.D.). Thirty-nine (69.64%) were AFB positive and 17 (30.36%) were AFB negative.In China, TB deaths fell from 216,000 in 1990 to 55,000 in 2010 and TB prevalence was halved, from 215 cases to 108 cases per 100,000 people.