The BBC reported the release of new World Health Organization statistics that have revised up the estimate of how many people have tuberculosis by almost 500,000.
In 2013 nine million people around the world were reported to have developed TB, though the number of people dying from the illness continued to decline. About three million people with TB had remained undiagnosed in 2013, the WHO added.
“The fact that three million people are missing out on treatment every year explains why there are still so many avoidable deaths from tuberculosis,” said TB Alert chief executive Mike Mandelbaum.
“By strengthening health systems, especially in high-incidence countries, we can turn the tide of this global epidemic and finally move into sight of eradicating this disease,” he added.
Read more: BBC Health, WHO revises global tuberculosis estimate up by 500,000, 22 October 2014
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