Stop TB Partnership: Annual Report 2014

Tuberculosis (TB) is a significant global public health threat. Despite being preventable and curable, the disease is widespread. In 2013, 9 million people fell ill with TB and 1.5 million people died from the disease – including 360,000 people coinfected with HIV. An estimated 550,000 children became ill with TB. The burden of this disease is disproportionately borne by relatively few countries, primarily in the developing world, with the majority of the global TB burden, spread across 22 highburden countries.

The number of people falling ill with TB is very slowly declining and the TB death rate dropped 45% between 1990 and 2013. Between 2000 and 2013, an estimated 37 million lives have been saved through TB diagnosis and treatment.

Despite substantial growth in funding for TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment since 2002, an annual gap of around US$ 2 billion is still needed to ensure a full response to the global TB epidemic. And critically, although new tools are emerging from the pipeline, much more investment is needed to reach, treat and cure all people with TB and accelerate progress towards the bold goal of ending TB by 2035.