TB In South Africa -the People’s Plague

• South Africa has the highest incidence of TB in the world. Two in three people are infected.
  
• Nine in ten people in the Western Cape have TB
  
• 160, 000 people get sick with TB every year.
  
• TB kills more adults annually than any other infectious disease.
  
• 3.5 million new TB cases are expected by 2005 if current trends continue.
  
• About 10 000 people die of TB every year.
  
• Over 2, 000 people got sick with multidrug-resistant TB in 1996.
  
• About 20 % of all TB patients are “treatment interrupters” and are at risk of developing multidrug-resistant TB.