
Tuberculosis infects nearly ten million people each year and kills nearly two million. It is primarily a lung disease that spreads easily among people with weakened immune systems. Sub-Saharan Africa is still the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS disaster, but it is also becoming the epicenter of tuberculosis.
In some areas of the world, one in four people with tuberculosis (TB) becomes ill with a form of the disease that can no longer be treated with standard drugs regimens, a World Health Organization (WHO) report says.
For example, 28% of all people newly diagnosed with TB in one region of north western Russia had the multidrug-resistant form of the disease (MDR-TB) in 2008. This is the highest level ever reported to WHO. Previously, the highest recorded level was 22% in Baku City, Azerbaijan, in 2007.