More tuberculosis (TB)-related deaths occurred in 1995 than in any other year in history (almost 3 million, vs. 2.1 million for the TB epidemic around 1990). In the next 50 years, as many as 500 million people may develop TB if current rates continue. More and more of these people will develop multidrug resistant TB. TB affects all social groups. It is the leading fatal infection in youth and adults. HIV positive people are more likely to die from TB than any other condition. More women die from TB than all causes of maternal mortality combined. Almost 50% of the world's refugees may have TB. All people are at risk of TB since TB bacteria, which enter the air via coughing or sneezing, can be suspended in the air for hours. Increased air travel and migration have brought TB back to industrialized countries. Multi-drug resistant TB has emerged in New York City, London, Milan, Paris, Atlanta, Chicago, and cities in developing countries. Governments of industrialized and developing countries have been slow to understand the effects of multi-drug resistant TB for public health. During the 1970s and 1980s, TB was greatly neglected resulting in the current multi-drug resistant TB epidemic. Policy makers have not applied the tools discovered by scientists to help eliminate TB. The World Health Organization recommends directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) to fight TB. DOTS can increase the number of cured TB patients two-fold. It can cure almost 95% of TB patients with medicines costing less than $11 in some areas of the world. Yet DOTS is being used to cure only 10% of all TB patients in the world. If it were used in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russian Federation, South Africa, and Zaire, about 75% of all TB cases would be cured. In DOTS, health workers, not the TB patient, are responsible for curing the TB patient. Poor patient compliance is responsible for the current TB epidemic because TB patients remain contagious and infect others.

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TB air countries DOTS patients epidemic people health treatment

.TB deaths reach historic levels. International (global).. (),14-6.

"TB deaths reach historic levels. International (global)."

"TB deaths reach historic levels. International (global)."