Tuberculosis is as old as humanity. Historians have found signs of tuberculosis in many people from previous centuries.

Screening for latent and active TB is part of the NPH Healthcare program 

• Tuberculosis is treatable and curable
• Particularly difficult to detect in children
• Needs to be detected on time to STOP the spread of the mycobacteria by air
• Can affect anywhere in the world
• On March 24, Robert Koch, a German scientific was able to isolate the bacterial “Koch Bacillus”

Key facts from WHO

• Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent.
• In 2013, 9 million people fell ill with TB and 1.5 million died from the disease.
• Over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, and it is among the top 5 causes of death for women aged 15 to 44.
• In 2013, an estimated 550,000 children became ill with TB and 80,000 HIV-negative children died of TB.
• TB is a leading killer of HIV-positive people causing one fourth of all HIV-related deaths.
• Globally in 2013, an estimated 480,000 people developed multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB).
• The estimated number of people falling ill with TB each year is declining, although very slowly, which means that the world is on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal to reverse the spread of TB by 2015.
• The TB death rate dropped 45% between 1990 and 2013.
• An estimated 37 million lives were saved through TB diagnosis and treatment between 2000 and 2013.

Sources: CDC and WHO websites