Dr. Robert Koch

Today, as on each March 24th, is World Tuberculosis Day marking the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced he had discovered the bacterium that causes tuberculosis^1,2.

Tuberculosis remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer.^2,6. Every day 30,000 people fall ill from tuberculosis and 4500 people per day die². This disease burden is borne primarily by adults in their most productive years, but affects those of all ages with 230,000 children dying of TB in 2017⁵. It is a leading cause of death for people also infected with HIV³. While the United States now has only 2.8 cases of TB per 100,000 population, it is really not so long ago (in 1900, less than 20 years after Dr. Koch’s discovery) that tuberculosis was the number one cause of death in the U.S.⁴ People living in resource-limited mission lands have not fared as well with this disease in the last century with over 95% of both current cases and deaths from TB occurring in developing countries⁵. As with so many illnesses, the great worldwide burden of the disease is borne by those with the least resources.

There is cause for optimism, though. Despite the challenges of drug-resistant tuberculosis, the incidence of TB is falling globally by 2% per year thanks to TB diagnosis and treatment⁵. This effort is estimated to have saved 54 million lives from 2000 to 2017. Those living in mission lands who have been cured of their tuberculosis or kept from ever being infected at all can be thankful for the pioneering work of Dr. Robert Koch 137 years ago.

1. The Nobel Prize

Robert Koch Biographical

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1905/koch/biographical/

2. World Health Organization

World Tuberculosis Day 2019

https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2019/03/24/default-calendar/world-tb-day-2019

3. CDC

Tuberculosis (TB) Data and Statistics

https://www.cdc.gov/tb/statistics/default.htm

4. CDC NCHS

Health United States, 1987

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services