Tuberculosis prevalence is the number of cases of tuberculosis per 100,000 people. Death rates associated with tuberculosis are deaths caused by tuberculosis per 100,000 people. A tuberculosis case is defined as a patient in whom tuberculosis has been bacteriologically confirmed or diagnosed by a clinician.
Goal 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Target 8. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
Detecting and curing tuberculosis are key interventions for addressing poverty and inequality. Prevalence and deaths are more sensitive markers of the changing burden of tuberculosis than incidence (new cases), although data on trends in incidence are far more comprehensive and give the best overview of the impact of global tuberculosis control.
Where the only data available are data reported through the administration of health services, they are expressed per 100,000 population, using population estimates as the denominator.
Where the data come from household surveys, prevalence (and more rarely deaths) is expressed per 100,000 population, using the total population in the survey as the denominator.
Tuberculosis prevalence is sometimes expressed in absolute numbers of cases, while tuberculosis incidence in a given period (usually one year) is always per 100,000 people.
Direct measures of tuberculosis prevalence are uncommon, and recent population-based surveys have been confined largely to countries in the East Asia and Pacific region. Direct measures of the tuberculosis death rate come from vital statistics registration. Reliable figures require that death registration be nearly universal and that the cause of death be reported routinely on the death record and determined by a qualified observer according to the International Classification of Diseases. Such information is not generally available in developing countries. Vital statistics registration systems tend to underestimate tuberculosis deaths, although time series data from some countries in Asia and the Americas give a useful indication of trends.
In the absence of direct measures of prevalence and death rates, a variety of techniques can be used to estimate these values. Administrative data are derived from the administration of health services. Data can also be obtained from household surveys such as Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys or the Demographic and Health Surveys, although these usually refer only to children under five and do not provide death rates. Population data come directly or indirectly from population censuses.
World Health Organization, www3.who.int/whosis and www.who.int/gtb/dots.
Stop TB Partnership, www.stoptb.org.
Human Development Report, annual, United Nations Development Programme (www.undp.org).
The State of the World’s Children, annual, United Nations Children’s Fund, (www.unicef.org/publications).
United Nations Children’s Fund, www.childinfo.org and www.unicef.org.
World Development Indicators, annual, World Bank (www.worldbank.org/data).
Gender and Health, Technical paper, 1998, World Health Organization (www.who.int/reproductive-health/publications).
Periodicity of Measurement
Administrative data are, in principle, available annually. Data from surveys are generally available every three to five years. Results from population censuses are generally available every 10 years.
At younger ages, the prevalence of infection is similar in boys and girls. At older ages, a higher prevalence has been found in men; in most of the world, more men than women are diagnosed with tuberculosis and die from it. However, recent analyses comparing infection and disease rates suggest that the propensity to develop the disease after infection with mycobacterium tuberculosis (the progression rate) may be greater among women of reproductive age than among men of the same age. A recent review of socioeconomic and cultural factors relating to these suggested differences called for further research to clarify such differences in the epidemiology of tuberculosis.
Although more men than women die of tuberculosis, it is still a leading cause of death from infectious disease among women. Because tuberculosis affects women mainly in their economically and reproductively active years, the impact of the disease is also strongly felt by their children and families.
Disaggregation issues
It is important to compile data by gender and to take a gender perspective in the analysis.
International data comparisons
World Health Statistics, annual, World Health Organization (www3.who.int/whosis). [Can’t find this publication. Do you mean World Health Report? www.global-health.gov/worldhealthstatistics.shtml]
Human Development Report, annual, United Nations Development Programme (www.undp.org).
The State of the World’s Children, annual, United Nations Children’s Fund, (www.unicef.org/publications).
United Nations Children’s Fund, www.childinfo.org and www.unicef.org.
World Development Indicators, annual, World Bank (www.worldbank.org/data).
Tuberculosis prevalence and death rate data reported by ministries in developing countries are usually only a fraction of the number of cases and deaths from tuberculosis in the population.
Agencies
Ministries of health.
World Health Organization.