Epidemiology Of Tuberculosis. The Current Situation In Germany And Worldwide

Tuberculosis belongs even in the twenty-first century to the most common infectious diseases worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 9 million people newly developed active tuberculosis in 2008 (incidence of 139/100,000). Because of the global growth of the world population the number of cases is further increasing. In 2008 1.8 million people died of tuberculosis. Worldwide 15% of all tuberculosis patients are estimated to be co-infected with HIV. In addition the global development of resistant tuberculosis bacteria is alarming. This kind of tuberculosis is quite difficult to treat and for the time being together with the HIV epidemic makes the elimination of this infectious disease unachievable. In Germany, however, both incidence and case numbers are decreasing (5.4 new cases/100,000 inhabitants in 2009 or 4432 cases).The situation differs regionally, though. The situation of resistant tuberculosis in Germany reflects the situation of the respective country of origin of the patients. The proportion of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is 1.5% of all new cases.