WHO calls for more money to fight tuberculosis

The number of deaths from tuberculosis remains “unacceptably large” despite falling rates of the disease, the World Health Organization has said.

WHO’s annual report on tuberculosis estimated that 8.6 million people developed the disease and 1.3 million died (including 320 000 deaths among HIV positive people) in 2012. It said that the number of deaths “remains unacceptably large given that most are preventable.”1

Globally, tuberculosis mortality has reduced by 45% since 1990 meaning that the world is on track to reach the 2015 millennium development goal target of a 50% reduction in tuberculosis deaths. Two WHO regions—the Americas and Western Pacific—have already hit their targets for reduced incidence. However, the African …