World TB Awareness Day

Although Tuberculosis (TB) is a curable and preventable disease, 1.3 million people died of the infection in 2012. In the same year, an estimated 450 000 people developed Multidrug-Resistant TB and there were an estimated 170 000 deaths from Multidrug-Resistant TB.

The World Health Organisation recently released some facts & figures about TB:

• Tuberculosis (TB) is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent.
• In 2012, 8.6 million people fell ill with TB.
• Over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, and it is among the top three causes of death for women aged 15 to 44.
• In 2012, an estimated 530,000 children became ill with TB and 74,000 HIV-negative children died of TB.
• TB is a leading killer of people living with HIV causing one fifth of all deaths.
• Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) is present in virtually all countries surveyed.
• The estimated number of people falling ill with tuberculosis each year is declining, although very slowly.
• The TB death rate dropped 45% between 1990 and 2012.

Janssen is committed to help in the fight against TB and is a partner in the StopTB Partnership. This 24 March the StopTB Partnership focuses on the 3 million newly infected patients that are "missed" by public health systems each year. Visit the StopTB Partnership for more information.

Janssen supports the World Health Organisation’s Millennium Development Goal to reverse the spread of Tuberculosis by 2015.