About TB

• Facts about TB
  • TB in short
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  • TB and drug resistance
  • TB and economy
  • TB and treatment
  • TB and international goals
• Why new vaccines?
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4. TB and economy

• TB undermines the capacity of countries to escape poverty and is an enormous drain on the worldwide economy.
  
  
• Because of the long, burdensome, complicated and possibly even fatal course of the disease, TB patients are often no longer able to (financially) support themselves and their families or help build up the economy of their country.

Picture by Jad Davenport

• The average TB patient loses 3 to 4 months of work and up to 30 per cent of yearly household earnings (WHO estimates).
  
  
• The World Bank estimates that the loss of productivity attributable to TB is 4 to 7 per cent in some of the worst-affected countries.

• The global burden of tuberculosis is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars every year (World Bank Report). The annual economic loss is 0.52 per cent of the world’s gross national income.