TB cases decline worldwide, WHO reports

The number of people who fell ill with tuberculosis dropped from 2005 to 2010, the World Health Organization said in its first report to show a decline in cases of the world's second-deadliest infectious killer.

New cases of the bacterial infection dropped to 8.8 million in 2010 from a peak of 9 million in 2005, the Geneva-based agency said in an emailed statement. Deaths from TB dropped to 1.4 million from 1.8 million in 2003, according to the agency.

“This is cause for celebration,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in the statement. “But it is no cause for complacency. Too many millions still develop TB each year, and too many die.”

A $1 billion shortfall in 2012 funding for fighting the disease threatens to undo progress as drug-resistant forms spread, the WHO said. Only about 16 percent of patients with multidrug-resistant TB were reported to have received treatment last year, according to the report.