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Home Topics Infectious Diseases Infections A-Z Tuberculosis (TB) Worldwide TB Surveillance Data

Worldwide TB Surveillance Data

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there were 8.8 million incident cases of tuberculosis in the world in 2010 (range, 8.5 million – 9.9 million), a rate of 128 cases per 100,000 population (range, 123 - 133) (see Table). It is also estimated that there were 12 million prevalent tuberculosis cases (range, 11 million – 14 million) and 1.1 million tuberculosis deaths in HIV-negative people (range, 0.9 million - 1.2 million). An additional 0.35 million tuberculosis deaths occurred in HIV-positive people (range, 0.32 million - 0.39 million) (classified as HIV deaths according to International Classification of Diseases).

Table. WHO estimates of tuberculosis incidence by WHO region, 2010

WHO Region

Number of cases (thousands)

Rate per 100,000

Africa

2300

276

The Americas

270

29

Eastern Mediterranean

650

109

Europe

420

47

South-East Asia

3500

193

Western Pacific

1700

93

Global

8800

128

 

 

WHO estimates by country

 

WHO estimates of tuberculosis incidence by country, for 2010, are available as convenient tables (prepared from data downloadable from the WHO website):

Further information

The WHO Stop TB Strategy and Global Plan to Stop TB present global targets for the control of tuberculosis, and progress towards achieving these targets is assessed in the latest WHO report.  For more information, visit:

Note: Data presented here are an extract of data available for download from the WHO website.  Only 'best estimate' figures of incidence are included here. Uncertainty bounds for these estimates are included in data downloadable from the WHO website and should be referred to if further interpretation of the figures is required.  Details of the methods used for the estimation of incidence can be found in the WHO report 'Global tuberculosis control 2011, available at http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/index.html.

Source: WHO TB burden estimates. Available at: www.who.int/tb/country/data/download/en/index.html. Accessed 30/11/2011.