Tuberculosis is 2nd to HIV in World Deaths
In a report by the World Health Organization released on October 28th, the WHO stated that for the first time, tuberculosis infections rivaled HIV/AIDS as a leading cause of death from infectious diseases. Throughout the year 2014, 1.1 million people died from TB. That same year, HIV/AIDS killed 1.2 million people around the world. 400,000 of those people were infected with both TB and HIV. Director of the WHO, Mario Raviglione, said the report reflects the dramatic gains in access to HIV/AIDS treatment in the past decade, which has helped a lot of people survive their infections. Since 2000, tuberculosis treatment has saved 43 million lives, but when taking into account the fact that most TB cases can be successfully treated, the death rate remains unacceptably high.
I think we should raise more awareness for tuberculosis. Most people only focus on HIV/AIDS, but both diseases are equally dangerous and kill a lot of people. TB is an ancient disease, but still very prevalent but easily preventable with proper treatment. We can't just turn our backs to tuberculosis when it's responsible for killing almost as much people as HIV/AIDS. Raviglione noted that $8 billion was spent on HIV/AIDS interventions internationally, while only 1/10th of that amount was spent for tuberculosis, which was a mere $800,000. A major reason for that difference is that HIV/AIDS mainly affects African countries while TB is more prominent in countries like India and China where TB infections can be better financed. Raviglione said, "It is time to start funding TB at a level that can make even more of a difference in curbing global deaths", and I agree with him. We haven't been taking tuberculosis as seriously as HIV/AIDS, and it's time that we do, because it's easily preventable and would save millions of lives, yet we aren't doing anything because we're too busy focusing on HIV/AIDS. Open your eyes, tuberculosis is just as important!
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tuberculosis-now-rivals-aids-as-leading-cause-of-death-says-who/
Article in source written by Julie Steenhuysen
I think we should raise more awareness for tuberculosis. Most people only focus on HIV/AIDS, but both diseases are equally dangerous and kill a lot of people. TB is an ancient disease, but still very prevalent but easily preventable with proper treatment. We can't just turn our backs to tuberculosis when it's responsible for killing almost as much people as HIV/AIDS. Raviglione noted that $8 billion was spent on HIV/AIDS interventions internationally, while only 1/10th of that amount was spent for tuberculosis, which was a mere $800,000. A major reason for that difference is that HIV/AIDS mainly affects African countries while TB is more prominent in countries like India and China where TB infections can be better financed. Raviglione said, "It is time to start funding TB at a level that can make even more of a difference in curbing global deaths", and I agree with him. We haven't been taking tuberculosis as seriously as HIV/AIDS, and it's time that we do, because it's easily preventable and would save millions of lives, yet we aren't doing anything because we're too busy focusing on HIV/AIDS. Open your eyes, tuberculosis is just as important!
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tuberculosis-now-rivals-aids-as-leading-cause-of-death-says-who/
Article in source written by Julie Steenhuysen