TB Is Now The Top Infectious Killer (Even Though Deaths Are Down)

Image: A nurse organizes the files of deceased patients at a TB hospital in Togliatti, Russia. Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis is a huge problem in the former Soviet Union. Misha Friedman

npr.org - October 28th 2015 - Jason Beaubien

Tuberculosis is now killing more people each year than HIV, according to new data from the World Health Organization.

WHO estimates there were almost 10 million new cases of TB last year; the disease caused 1.5 million deaths. By comparison, 1.2 million lives were claimed by HIV.

That makes TB the No. 1 infectious killer.

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