UMEM Educational Pearls

Title: Tuberculosis

Category: International EM

Keywords: Tuberculosis, infectious disease (PubMed Search)

Posted: 1/7/2015 by Jon Mark Hirshon, PhD, MPH, MD
Click here to contact Jon Mark Hirshon, PhD, MPH, MD

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major infectious disease that occurs worldwide.

TB is second only to HIV/AIDS for the number of individuals killed worldwide from a single agent.
In 2013, 1.5 million died from TB and 9 million became ill
The vast majority (>95%) of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries

Fortunately, public health and clinical measures have had some success.

The estimated number of individuals annually become ill with TB is declining
The TB death rate dropped 45% between 1990 and 2014
An estimated 37 million lives were saved between 2000 and 2013 through diagnosis and treatment

Bottom line:

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major killer worldwide.
Treatments are available to treat both latent and active disease
- See: http://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/treatment/
Good clinical awareness is key to disease identification

http://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/treatment/