Yet the numbers of people infected by TB are still high. Last year 8.7 million people worldwide became ill with TB, and 1.4 million people died because of the disease. The highest numbers of TB cases are found in the South East Asia and Western Pacific regions, where about 60 % of the world's TB cases are located. Additionally, although the numbers globally are going down, seen regionally Africa and Europe are not on track to reach the MDG before its set date of 2015.
AIDS, TB and malaria are the three most deadly infectious diseases in the world today. However, funding for TB is lacking behind compared to the other two diseases. Consequently, the epidemic is becoming increasingly resistant to the few medicines available to fight the disease.
This critical lack of sufficient funding for TB care and control, is one reason for the high numbers of TB cases, when there are not enough medicines or vaccines provided to the people in need. Also, research and development are held back because of insufficient funding, although there has been progress in developing new medicines and vaccines.
The Global Fund is a major sponsor of fighting TB, malaria and AIDS, and 90 % of global funding for TB comes from this financing institution, which is one of RESULTS International's partner organisations.
The annually Global Tuberculosis Report gives a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and analyses the progress in implementing and financing TB prevention, care and control at global, regional and national levels. This report is helpful for the future work on TB, and important in our struggle to reach the MDGs globally, regionally as well as nationally.
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