The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)

A global disease that affects millions

This article was published more than two years ago. Some information may no longer be accurate.

Tuberculosis remains the world’s leading infectious disease killer. This preventable and curable illness claims three lives every minute.*

Tuberculosis, commonly known as TB, infects people irrespective of age and gender, across geographic boundaries.

The global health community has been actively battling the disease for years and great advances have been made in preventing and curing TB worldwide. Deaths caused by the disease dropped by 47 percent between 1990 and 2015, with an estimated 43 million lives saved between 2000 and 2014. Still, with over nine million new cases being diagnosed each year, there is much to be done.**

In recognition of World TB Day, we are shining a light on some of the lives that have been affected by this disease: From the women, men and children who have been infected, and the families and friends who suffer because a loved one is ill, to the tireless health-workers who battle TB every day.

A selection of images from around the world tells the story …

Photo created by Sam Nuttall

This health worker uses a horse to collect the sputum samples needed to diagnose TB in patients from remote areas of Lesotho.
Photo created by 3MDG

In Myanmar, a mother and her children wait in a mobile TB clinic.
Photo created by Riccardo Venturi

Old and young, Afghan women and girls wait to be tested for TB.
Photo created by Daniel Rochkind

This prison window in Moldova reminds us that prisoners in the country are especially vulnerable to TB.
Photo created by Stop TB Partnership

Little Indonesian girls take their TB medicine with a glass of milk.
Photo created by Riccardo Venturi

In Estonia, this TB patient receives a visitor in hospital.