Tuberculosis: distribution, risk factors, mortality.

About a century after Koch's discovery of the TB bacilli the tuberculosis epidemic which had appeared to be under control was again recognized as a major global health threat. The decline in the epidemic in this century had been largely through the improved living standards and, eventually, the availability and use of effective antibiotics. While tuberculosis gradually disappeared from the health agenda in the western world it remained a big killer throughout the century and in 1992 an estimated 2.7 million TB deaths occurred; 30 million will die from TB during the 1990s if current trends are not reversed. The annual number of new cases will increase from 7.5 million estimated in 1990 to more than 10 million in the year 2000. The main factors for this increase are demographic forces, population movements, the HIV epidemic and increasing drug resistance. The impact of the HIV epidemic is already felt in many sub-Saharan African countries and now threatens Asia where almost two-thirds of the world's TB infected population live and where HIV is spreading. Tuberculosis has also reemerged as a major public health problem in industrialized countries due to international migration, the breakdown of health services, including TB services etc. The control of the epidemic can only be through a concerted action to reinstate TB as priority among health concerns, reflected in national and international resources. A coalition of public and private supporters must be mobilized to support the effort to fight the disease. Governments, non-governmental organizations, the business community, refugee organizations, medical institutions, and other UN agencies are invited to join with WHO in this effort.