LONDON, England (CNN) -- Commonly thought of as a Victorian disease, tuberculosis, or TB, remains a persistent global health problem. It is a common disease of the lung that is airborne and highly contagious.
If left untreated, tuberculosis can be deadly. It is found everywhere in the world.
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Many myths and misconceptions abound about TB. But how much do you know about the disease? Here, CNN compiles TB's killer facts:
-- Every 20 seconds, someone in the world dies of TB.
-- Two billion people, or about one-third of the world's population, are infected with the bacteria that causes TB.
-- About one out of every 10 of those people will develop active TB.-- If left untreated, a person sick with TB in their lungs can infect 10 to 15 people a year.
-- TB is the leading infectious killer of people living with HIV/AIDs in the world.
-- Some 9.2 million new cases of tuberculosis occurred worldwide in 2006, up nearly 40 percent from 1990, due mostly to population growth.
-- India had the highest number of new absolute cases, followed by China, Indonesia, South Africa and Nigeria.
-- Just 22 countries account for 80 percent of the worldwide cases of TB. The disease is most prevalent in developing countries.
-- Multidrug-resistant TB, a form of TB that does not respond to the usual drugs and must be treated with special drugs, has proliferated in recent years and causes about 130,000 deaths annually.
-- An even more extreme form of TB, known as XDR-TB, is virtually uncurable. Cases have appeared around the world.
Source: World Health Organization
via edition.cnn.com
TB is now occurring in Wales UK - I know of two cases near Harlech in the last six months.
