RPM Plus Tuberculosis Brochure
A highly contagious airborne disease, tuberculosis (TB) infects more than eight million people each year worldwide and causes about two million deaths. About one-third of the world’s population is infected with the TB bacillus. TB and HIV/AIDS are an especially deadly combination, and in countries with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, up to 80 percent of TB patients may be co-infected. Although TB can be effectively treated with the appropriate medicines, the disease is on the rise in developing and transitional countries, fueled by poverty, inadequate health systems, and HIV/AIDS. An increased incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB, which results from poor patient adherence to treatment, inappropriate prescribing, and poor-quality medications, is a significant problem, especially in low-resource settings. Treating MDR-TB is possible but the cost of the needed second-line medicines is much higher than the cost of first-line medicines used against uncomplicated TB, and the treatment period for MDR-TB is significantly longer.