Tuberculosis has been labeled the one of the leading causes of death from infectious diseases, second to HIV/AIDS, by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October. It found that during 2014, 1.1 million people died of tuberculosis and 1.2 million people people died of HIV/AIDS. Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO TB program, said that increases in access to HIV/AIDS treatment has helped many people survive the disease. But it reflects the difference in the funding for the two most deadly diseases around the world.
"The good news is that TB intervention has saved some 43 million lives since 2000," Raviglione said in an interview. But the fact that tuberculosis can be successfully treated and cured, the death rate seems way too high." Grania Brigden, medical director of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said that the report "should serve as a wake-up call that enormous work still needs to be done to reduce the burden of this ancient, yet curable disease." Tuberculosis is treatable but the international funding for the disease is 10 times less than for HIV/AIDS. $8 billion was spent on HIV/AIDS but only $800,000 was spent on tuberculosis. Part of the reason for this is because HIV/AIDS is very common in and affects poor, undeveloped countries, especially Africa. However TB is more popular in countries like India and China, where the majority of the citizens are able to pay for tuberculosis treatment.
I never knew tuberculosis was deadly and killed almost as much people as HIV/AIDS did. The problem with HIV/AIDS is that it isn't curable and most of the people who contact it are not able to receive treatment for disease. However TB is treatable and if people receive treatment for it, they will be cured so at first I didn't understand how TB is one of the leading causes of death from diseases. Now I know the reason for this is because of the gap in international funding between HIV/AIDS and TB. If people know more about TB and started funding for it, then the deaths caused by tuberculosis could go down.
Source:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tuberculosis-now-rivals-aids-as-leading-cause-of-death-says-who/
Article by Julie Steenhuysen on October 28,2015
"The good news is that TB intervention has saved some 43 million lives since 2000," Raviglione said in an interview. But the fact that tuberculosis can be successfully treated and cured, the death rate seems way too high." Grania Brigden, medical director of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said that the report "should serve as a wake-up call that enormous work still needs to be done to reduce the burden of this ancient, yet curable disease." Tuberculosis is treatable but the international funding for the disease is 10 times less than for HIV/AIDS. $8 billion was spent on HIV/AIDS but only $800,000 was spent on tuberculosis. Part of the reason for this is because HIV/AIDS is very common in and affects poor, undeveloped countries, especially Africa. However TB is more popular in countries like India and China, where the majority of the citizens are able to pay for tuberculosis treatment.
I never knew tuberculosis was deadly and killed almost as much people as HIV/AIDS did. The problem with HIV/AIDS is that it isn't curable and most of the people who contact it are not able to receive treatment for disease. However TB is treatable and if people receive treatment for it, they will be cured so at first I didn't understand how TB is one of the leading causes of death from diseases. Now I know the reason for this is because of the gap in international funding between HIV/AIDS and TB. If people know more about TB and started funding for it, then the deaths caused by tuberculosis could go down.
Source:http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tuberculosis-now-rivals-aids-as-leading-cause-of-death-says-who/
Article by Julie Steenhuysen on October 28,2015